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You probably already know this but I still have to say:
“Example” is for humans and pokemon speaking their native tongues.
“<Example>” is for Pokemon translated into English.
“Example” is for people/pokemon in thought.

I'll add each chapter once I feel it is done to it's best, so don't get too impatient as I have most chapters done and just need some editing.

The prologue is much, much shorter than my usual chapters, since it's only here to set the mood and anticipation for the story. Oh and I know I'm not supposed to call the Prologue "Prologue" but I wanted to put it there for formality. Once I post the first few chapters, the prologue will seem more in place.

Prologue

Everything was a dark green and brown blur in my eyes. The colors moved around in my eyes, I was unable to focus while I sprinted. All that I focused on was running away. I ran through the eerie, misty forest, bounding over roots and branches. There were few beams of light trying to enter the forest, clearly seen in the haze.

I didn’t know WHAT I was running from but I knew that I had to run. I knew I was being chased, I could sense it. Out of the corner of my eye I could see what appeared to be a moving shape… perhaps a figure, running beside me. It blended in with the forest but had a blur of red moving on it as it ran by my side, like there was a piece of the forest running with me. The red was the only way that I knew that it wasn’t part of the underbrush.

The plantlife that I dashed in became denser. I felt myself trip over a hard, unwavering root and fall face first into the bushes and grass. I lay in the ground, expecting the worse. When it didn’t arrive I tried to get up and move forward, but my legs wouldn’t let me. I used my right arm to try and crawl forward, grabbing at plants and weeds to help pull me along.

The dim figure in front of me extended its hand. I tried to grab it but I couldn’t reach. I looked up and saw a beautiful, almost angelic, shape of a girl I knew beside the figure. Behind them shined a blinding light. The girl had brown-red hair and smooth, natural skin. She smiled sweetly at me with an innocent yet beautiful face. I tried to grab for them but the two continued to be forever out of my reach. I tried to get up again but my legs were limp so I fell back to the ground. I moved forwards using only my hands to drag the rest of my body.

I heard whispers and high, raspy shrieks of the unknown creature echoing, coming from all around me. They boomed through the forest as if they were everywhere… but I knew they were only getting closer to me. They gradually grew louder and I struggled, helpless.

I looked down at my left arm and saw a gigantic gash appear down my bicep. The flesh was completely ripped from that part of my upper arm. I could see the insides of my arm: inside the gash were: still pumping veins and arteries, muscles which quivered in contraction, and exposed tissues. The arm stung with a cold numbness, but surprisingly no pain. I was horrified by the grizzly sight; I could feel every muscle in my chest constrict in fear.

“Oh, Arceus…my arm… its insides… ” I thought in terror.

I felt as if I should vomit but I couldn’t. IT… did this! The next strike and I was sure I’d be dead.

There was echoing of screeches all around, I saw the glint of a metal blade in the very corner of my eye.

This is it.

Swish!

Pain. A horrible, piercing pain was felt in my head. It was not the dull pain of a headache, but more like someone… or something, slashed me in the head. All I then saw, seconds after, was a blinding light and a neutral sense of purgatory

I revamped this chapter to fix up any errors. No MAJOR changes this chapter.

The Launch of a Journey

“PIDGEO, PIDGEO, PIDGEO.”

Those are the words that Jeff heard as he awoke in a puzzled daze. Jeff twitched uncomfortably; this wasn’t the soft cot that he fell asleep in. He opened his eyes, revealing his iris to be green with a tint of yellow surrounding the pupils.

There was a bright light shining from the windows piercing into his confused cornea, causing his pupils to constrict in miosis. He squinted and he darted his eyes around. He found himself lying on the cold, wood paneled floor of his room. A sharp pain in the back of his head caused him to cringe.

The pain would return every few seconds along with the obnoxiously loud squawks of the ongoing noise. It was as if this unknown force was mocking him. Jeff lazily rolled from his side onto his back. The pain did not return as he had expected it to, a few seconds later, although the sound “PIDGEO” still loudly hollered.

Jeff jerked his head around, quickly looking around the room. He looked down at his bicep revealing a large healed scar down his arm. “Thank Arceus… it was just a dream.” He wiped the sweat from his brow and quickly scanned the room again… just in case.

He got up onto one knee and his hands. Lying to his right was an opened copy of “Catch-22,” by Joseph Heller, as well as the “Hoenn Edition to the Guide of Starter Pokemon,” by Professor Birch.

As he lazily read the name “Professor Birch” he remembered that the man was the local pokemon professor for his small but lush hometown of Littleroot. He also taught Jeff in high school about the many different aspects of pokemon.

“I must have fallen out of bed,” Jeff thought to himself, remaining on one knee.

He looked to the side of his end table and saw that the cause of the pain in his head was brought on by his Pidgeotto alarm clock, which was lying sideways on the floor. The wooden bird extended and contracted, and squawked from its static perch on the clock.

He held the back of his head. His hand brushed through his dark brown hair, which was light and somewhat dense, with the hair overgrowing in the back.

Jeff tried to get his bearings. His eyes darted to the window, which had a leafy tree branch brushing up against the glass. His eyes then looked to the beige wall of his room.

On the wall were two movie posters, tacked to the drywall. One was poster was advertising “Lone Wolf” starring Duke, the Mightyena. The poster showed a grey and black, wolf like pokemon separated from its pack, walking away from them, bearing his teeth with a large snarl on his face.

The poster to the left of it was entitled “The Last Tree”. There was a picture of a Grovyle slumped against a tree, looking off, deeply, into the distance. “Starring ‘Nychus the Grovyle’, A thought provoking, breathtaking ride!” read a review. The Grovyle was a large, green raptor pokemon. He had green leaves protruding his arms and head. Jeff had remembered seeing a picture of a Grovyle in the book by his bed. Those were two of his favorite movies; both were action/dramas.

He idly fondled a long, lance-shaped leaf of the dragon tongue plant beside him as he stared at his wall.

Jeff continued scrolling his eyes along the wall. He stopped at a calendar. He focused in on today’s date circled in red marker.

He blinked in revelation. “Today’s the day I get my first pokemon!” Jeff thought to himself.

“Oh, never mind. I thought the minute hand was the hour hand again. It’s really just eight fifteen,” Jeff thought to himself, grinning and relieved as he stroked his small, overgrown goatee, which was morning shadow. "I wouldn't have wanted to get an Eevee or something. With plenty of time to spare, I should shave."

Jeff got to his feet and stretched, growling in a low tenor voice, as he did so. He walked up to his wall mirror and admired himself. He was shirtless and wore green plaid PJ pants. He looked in the mirror at his six feet tall, one hundred forty-five pound stature. He had a strong muscular build and a good, sturdy posture.

He walked over to his tidy dresser and began to get changed. Jeff slowly got changed into his favorite set of clothes. This attire was his green T-shirt, a pair of roughed up, blue soccer shorts, holey socks, and sunglasses.

“It’s finally happening…I’m going to leave town on my own pokemon journey, like all of my friends before me did.” He thought as he poked his head through his forest green shirt.

Jeff had many friends who are aspiring pokemon masters/coordinators. Most of them have already set out on their journey during high school with their very own pokemon. They had been successful at doing what they do best…fight and show off. Sure they can be jerks but they were his best human friends and they were always fun to be around. Only a few remained with he in high school for an indefinite period of time. He knew that they would eventually all go too.

“I should make a good first impression for my first pokemon,” he thought, picking up his electric razor and turning it og

Jeff claimed that the reason that he did not start his pokemon journey when he was ten was because that he thought that most of the kids who set out at that age didn’t last very long as a trainer. The usual reason for this is that the pokemon would mature faster than the kid and in most cases have no respect for some kid. Besides, going out into the world knowing nothing of what’s coming and relying purely on your pokemon will nit only get you hurt but most importantly your pokemon. That opinion led Jeff to decide to learn more about them and how to responsibly care for them, attending Professor Birch’s school lectures. However, there was a different reason that Jeff refused to tell anybody.

“I guess I should at least put on deodorant,” he thought to himself, picking up a stick of deodorant. He rubbed the ‘Forest fresh’ deodorant on his underarms and checked the smell.

“I’m going to compete in the Hoenn League. I don’t really care if I win the league or not, but I do love battling and it’s an excuse for me to go out on an adventure and make new friends with people and pokemon, as well as meet my old friends. And if I DO win…and she is watching…”

He beamed as he rechecked his wallet.

Although Jeff had a posse of close friends, he had always made himself a bit of a lone wolf in the group. When his group of friends were laughing and playing he would always be a little bit off to the side, calmly relaxing or listening and pondering about whatever was on his mind.

Jeff walked towards the door of his room, but stopped and turned.

“Oops, almost forgot.”

Jeff went over to his wooden desk. The desk consisted of a backpack, a PC, old research papers about pokemon, and a cactus. He picked up his back pack which carried a few potions and antidotes, a great deal of saved up money, a sleeping bag and pillow, one of his Dad’s medical kits and about three weeks worth of light meals to be rationed. He looked to the right of his PC, and picked up this odd twig, which was straight and had a smaller branch coming off of it diagonally, and let it rest in his mouth, habitually.

He would travel with that odd tree twig in his mouth everywhere. Only he and one other knew where it came from…

Jeff exited his room and walked over the dull carpet, turning left to the stairs. He stopped in his tracks when he saw a purple figure standing on the stairs.

“Yo, Tyrogue, I’m finally going,” Jeff smiled to the superpower pokemon, who was the size of a child. Tyrogue smiled and continued walking past Jeff and into his parent’s room to weight lift.

Tyrogue was a pokemon caught by Jeff’s older brother. He decided to leave him here while he traveled to the Johto region. His brother was nine years older than him. He left to start his own journey while Jeff was still in pokemon elementary. He had always admired his older brother and his starter pokemon. He hasn’t seen them in some time. He and Tyrogue had become good friends over the years, and only Tyrogue knew of Jeff's secret.

“Tyrogue!” Jeff called out, “I left the dumbbells in my room, but the barbells are still there, though!” Jeff explained to the pokemon, who decided to go body build.

Jeff walked down the stairs and went towards the vestibule, which was home to shoes and coats. He slipped on a pair of white and green New Balance shoes. He turned and yelled calmly into the kitchen to his mom, Mrs. Growell.

There's no excuse, you could have asked me to change the title. Please don't do that again.

I'm asumming then the previous topic isn't needed anymore...

Without ppinting out some details I must say I like the way you narrate and the choice of words throught these two chapters. Don't rush the plot too much as you've apparently got what it takes to deepen the character's personalities and the narrative.

First time I ever read "miosis" in a Pokemon fanfic. xD But as Steven said, you do have good word choices when describing things.

The one thing that bothers me is the random line breaks in your chapters. You place sentences alone in a new paragraph when they could have easily been combined with previous paragraphs.

There's not much else I can say. I figure that others might have a problem with Jeff starting so late, but I really don't care. As long as you finally posted this story. :p I'm going to keep reading this, of course.

Thanks, I'll try to combine the sentences more. Yeah, the only reason I have for Jeff starting so late is that he isn't a happy-go-lucky, unexperienced 10 year old. Plus he kind of needed to be mature for reasons we'll find out later *twidles fingers mysteriously*...and I forget what those reasons are.

A much more noticable revamp here. Added more depth and fixed most grammatical errors.

The Roots of a Friendship

1 year ago

The tale of how Jeff got that distinguished twig was a memorable one, especially since the twig was not the only thing he discovered that day. He was out in the forested grasslands outside of Littleroot Town, exploring. He had decided to take a walk to see if he could spot any cool or interesting pokemon.

Jeff was some distance away from the town. He slid his backpack off of his arm and threw it carelessly on the grass. He leaned back against a tree, which stood beside a small, tranquil lakeside, when a Zigzagoon came up to him, curiously. The pokemon was a brown and beige furred large rodent. Its fur appeared to be spiky, although it was really quite soft.

Zigzagoon sniffed around, inspecting his apple. Jeff put a hand up to motion that he was friendly. Ever since Jeff was young he had never felt any particular fear or hostility towards pokemon. Growing up with a family that had a Chikorita, he felt that pokemon were no threat to him. He liked mostly all pokemon as long as they were at least indifferent towards him. He decided to crouch down in front of it and fed the creature some of his apple that he didn’t finish. Zigzagoon began to happily munch on it, but then it looked up as a large shadow was cast over it as well as Jeff’s back. It dropped the piece of apple that was in its mouth and started to panic, running around in zigzags and then out of sight.

“What’s wrong?” Jeff asked, confused.

As Jeff noticed the creature run and the moving shadow behind him, a large chill went down his back. He could hear a swipe as if a sword was being swung in the air. His instincts got the better of him. Jeff speedily stood up and turned around and saw a giant scythe ready to fall towards him. Attached to the scythe were a long green arm and the enraged face of a giant bug pokemon.

The glowering face struck fear into the very soul of Jeff. Chills crept up his spine like a hundred Beedrills were giving him acupuncture with their needles. His green eyes widened and they met with the pokemon’s hazel eyes. He felt adrenaline course through his veins and rush to his head and limbs.

Jeff remembered Professor Birch talking about a pokemon like this in one of his lectures. He recalled him saying something about a blinding fury towards the color red. Of course, Jeff decided to where a red t-shirt for his hike that day, but instead of beating himself up about it, he decided to take action.

As the scythe began to be brought down, Jeff nimbly jumped to his right and he instinctively punched the creature in the face with his right arm. Jeff used his training from when he occasionally sparred with Tyrogue.

“Scyyythe!” It stumbled back a step and then lunged, even angrier, towards Jeff. “THER!!”

The terrifying mantis brought its claw down on Jeff. The blade slashed from Jeff’s left shoulder, cutting diagonally down the bicep, the gash ending above his elbow.

“GRAAAAAAGGHHH” Jeff yelled in blinding pain. He could feel the metal slice through his skin, taking pieces with the blade, and exit. He felt as if someone had poured oil in the cut before throwing a match into the gash. Jeff turned and fell to one knee, saliva spitting from his clenched teeth through the labored growls. His face whitened from the blood loss yet he felt beads of sweat form on his brow. Although his legs were trembling, Jeff took advantage of his adrenaline; he clutched his slashed bicep, turned, and ran behind him.

Jeff hobbled away from the pokemon, who was recovering from the powerful slash. Jeff ran with all of his strength into the forest, hearing the terrorizing cries of the bug pokemon echoing all around him. His speed was fueled by his blistering pain, it acted as the nine-tails whip of a slave driver coercing Jeff onward, for fear of a fate worse than being beaten. He ran over verdant ferns and hopped over roots, clutching his bleeding arm as he went.

Jeff dove behind this huge, lush, towering tree, which had many thick branches attached to it. Jeff was bleeding profusely from his arm. He pressed his back up against the tree and looked over his shoulder to his right. Jeff could hear a rustling above him; he darted his head up and saw leaves move and then nothing. He was positive that Scyther was moving above him, but for all he knew it was just the wind. The giant bug was nowhere to be found. But then Jeff looked to his left and saw the sneering face of the giant green bug right in front of him.

The pokemon grunted in his face and Jeff’s heart sank. The only thing between him and the scythe was a small twig, attached to the tree beside him about at Jeff’s scalp level.

“SYYYTHHHE,” the creature wailed as its scythe began to fall towards Jeff.

“This is it, I’m dead,” Jeff thought as he leaned there, helplessly.

He kept his eyes only on the twig in front of him, trying to face his fate with as much courage as possible. He could see the twinkle of the scythe and it got through about halfway into the twig and then stopped.

Jeff looked towards the creature. Its eyes were wide, jaw open. Jeff looked down, puzzled, and saw a small green lizard, with a sturdy red chest, who had its large, dark green tail embedded into the bug’s abdomen. “Treecko Tree” it said calmly with a high tenor voice. The bug pokemon doubled over while the new pokemon crawled up the massive trunk of the tree that Jeff was leaned against. The tree was staggeringly large; the trunk and canopy were colossal, but the tree itself wasn’t as lush and appeared to be in bad condition.

The Scyther straightened itself, growled, and began to bat its wings, which created a chilling, humming sound. The snarling assailant flew after the lizard up the trunk. The green tree-climber was very quick and adept at scaling the bark. Before the Scyther knew it, its foe had disappeared in the immense canopy.

The bug pokemon continued to fly vertically towards the tree top. Before it could brace itself it saw a big, green tail appear from seemingly nowhere and descend towards its face. The lizard’s mighty tail battered the Scyther backwards. The unexpected ambush caused Scyther’s aerial equilibrium to be compromised. It fell backwards and fell head first towards the ground. The Scyther tried to right itself in the air but it was too late; it hit the ground with a blunt smack. The heroic pokemon jumped from the tree and landed beside it, crossing his arms without a care. Scyther snarled and got to its feet.

The green reptile stared into the pokemon’s eyes, unflinchingly. Scyther raised and swiped its razor arm in a vertical downwards action. The targeted pokemon jumped out of the way to his side. The claw hit the ground but missed its prey. Scyther quickly reared its left arm to its chest before swiping it towards the jumping green and ruby lizard. The wood gecko noticed the blade and quickly bent his head backwards in the air. He narrowly missed a decapitation but he still sustained a minor cut on his green chin. He landed on one knee and paused, taking a moment to wipe the blood from his neck. The now grinning lizard extended a finger and retracted it in a taunting fashion.

His grin became serious when the Scyther drove his claw from the ground and rushed him, on foot. He walked towards his attacker with a calm, collected aura. The Scyther was ready to strike. The wood gecko picked up speed and ducked between the bug's legs. He moved behind it before quickly turning, tail first. The tail struck with great speed and power; it took out the Scyther’s legs, causing it to fall flat on its back. The mystery pokemon then jumped in the air and went into a somersault. He landed with his tail being driven into the Scyther’s face. He moved his tail from the target and saw that the Scyther’s eyes were closed and was definitely knocked out. It then turned around with a satisfied, smug grin and made eye contact with the wounded human.

Jeff stared in a respectful awe at this unlikely hero.

“Why did he save me? He had to know that he was putting his life on the line. Most pokemon would have just went on their way or even helped with the beating! He almost died trying to help. He doesn’t know how much I owe him.”

Jeff’s sight was compromised from the blood lost the entire battle so it wasn’t until the pokemon was still that he got a good glimpse of his savior.

“Treecko… a Treecko?!” He thought, eyes widening in labored joy. He immediately thought of his brother.

He tried to get up to walk over to him, but Jeff was in too much pain. Instead, he walked over to Jeff. Jeff’s face was overwhelmed with the joy of being alive and that of being saved by a Treecko. Jeff managed a shaky smile. With the beam, he outstretched his hand. Treecko grinned and closed his eyes. He turned around and, to Jeff’s surprise and delight, answered the gesture of affection with his tail. This was Treecko’s way of returning the handshake. Jeff’s green-yellow eyes met Treecko’s purely yellow eyes and the two grinned.

“Treecko Tree,” The lizard said as the two shuck hands…err, tails?

Jeff’s light headedness got the better of him. He then fell over on his right side, in pain. Treecko rushed over to his side and saw the open wound. Treecko licked Jeff’s wound, swashed the blood around in his mouth, and then spat it out. Treecko used that method to check if there was poison from Scyther’s attack in Jeff’s bloodstream. At first Jeff was very confused yet, surprisingly, not worried. He then came to understand that Treecko was, in fact caring for him.

“So you’re a Treecko, huh?” Jeff asked him, as he admired the small, green savior. Treecko nodded and spat out the remainder of the blood and indicated that there was no poison present. “Don’t Treecko usually live in packs?” Jeff continued to attempt small talk.

Treecko opened his mouth to respond but then turned away.

“What was that about?” Jeff wondered. Jeff thought about what Treecko was like. He imagined him to be by himself, a loner. “Maybe he watched from the tree while other Treecko’s played tag or hide and seek or whatever Treecko’s played. What if he wanted to play and they wouldn’t let him?”

“Poor guy.”

Jeff both admired and pitied the Treecko for this thought, mainly because he could relate, despite the fact that Jeff now has many friends. Maybe he wanted friends but his Treecko friends rejected him. Maybe he chose to be alone but couldn’t help wanting at least one good friend. The admiration grew along with the sadness. He stared deeply into the Treecko’s eyes.

A rash thought crossed Jeff’s mind, but he quickly discarded what he thought was a crazy idea. Jeff sighed, wishing that his idea would actually work if he asked.

Treecko patted his shoulder and pointed upwards, indicating that he’d be right back. He climbed up the tree and brought back a vine, a few large leaves, a thorn, and slender strips of birch bark. Treecko hastily tied the vine around Jeff’s left shoulder, just above the wound, in an attempt to cut off the blood circulation in his arm, to staunch the bleeding. Treecko then applied the leaves to the wound, using them as bandages. As soon as the bleeding stopped, Treecko stuck the thorn at the end of the long bark rope; he used that to stitch Jeff’s wound closed.

“Why are you helping me?” Jeff asked as he cringed, looking at Treecko, confused.

“Treecko cko treecko!” Treecko grinned and helped him to his feet.

“I owe you one… big time. I promise I’ll pay you back.”

Treecko grinned and nodded, not expecting him to.

Jeff looked at the twig which was half cut off. It was straight with a diagonal branch coming off of the center side of it. He decided to break it off and take it with him, so that he would never forget the day that a Treecko that did not know Jeff, and that Jeff did not know, saved him.

“No, I swear that I’ll find you again and then make us even!"

Treecko stared into Jeff’s eyes and saw that he was being very sincere. The wood gecko grinned and closed his eyes in thought.

“Thank you for saving me. I hope we’ll meet somewhere again.” Jeff thanked him as he stood, wobbly.

The Treecko nodded, waited until he was sure Jeff could walk, and climbed the epically large tree, which Jeff was backed against, roosting up on a large branch.

As he slowly, and somewhat glumly, went back to the town, he looked back at the Treecko sitting on the branch looking off into the sunset. Jeff was surprised to see that the Treecko had also placed an identical twig from the same tree in his own mouth. Jeff’s heart warmed.

Wow...that ending...I enjoyed it. I liked the entire chapter. Some good life-threatening action and a touching scene between Jeff and a Treecko. And it was a good way to do the flashback to the event, as a chapter unto itself. No annoying interruptions to "present day".

I really have no idea if this review makes any sense. xD I'm tired and in some pain, so my mind is cunfuddled. All you need to know from this is that I liked this chapter and am looking forward to more.

The next chapter is a flashback taking place right after this one...I was skeptical about putting two flashbacks in a row as they may seem to play simalar tunes and slow the ball from rolling forward, but I realized that I needed to put it in so that the actions of the characters in the chapters after were justified.

P.S. Lilninjapig, you don't happen to know where Dachampster is, do you? I need to ask him something pertaining my fic.

Like I said in my Authors Notes, Rest assured, I wrote all of this before reading the first chapter of your fanfic. I chose to start with Treecko for a long time. I know they seem simalar now but they're going to turn out to be very different.
I'm an honest, just guy and give credit where it's due.

I never said it didn't. Nevertheless, I couldn't have crawled into your mind a year ago and made our ideas very simalar on purpose.
I wanted to do something different from 'going to the lab, choosing ___, and the pokemon immediatly loves him' because thats not realistic. I wanted there to be an instant bond from the start (That sounds like an adhesive advertisement) and what better way than for one of them to save the other's life?

But ANY ways, I've made my point and I know that my story is a complete product of my...mind? I hope you all continue to Enjoy the story. The next chapter will be up soon.

The cool, night breeze irritated Jeff’s crudely stitched gash. He poked at it, idly, picking at the dried blood that formed a still trickle down his arm, like sap on a tree trunk.

Jeff slowly limped over the forest bed; sticks broke and leaves crunched beneath his heavy feet. Every so often, he turned his head around, paranoid of more pokemon who didn’t think red was his color. He heard a light scampering in the brush around him.

“What if it’s a Caterpie?!” Jeff thought to himself, genuinely nervous. “Their horns are kind of sharp… and what if it… tackles me?” he brooded over, trying to justify his fear.

“Arceus! I’ve never been afraid of pokemon before! I never thought that one could or would actually kill me… I never thought that one would help me in that situation, either, though.”

Jeff hurried his footsteps. He wanted to leave so much but at the same time he wanted to go back into the pitch black forest. Large branches obstructed his path so he had to step over them. Jeff turned around to look behind him while he walked, but he tripped over a large stick. The injured teen fell and landed on a large root, his wounded arm taking the blunt of the impact.

“HRAAAARGHHH!!” Jeff screamed out in pain. He clutched his arm and rolled onto his other side. Jeff removed his hand from the cut and saw that one of the crude, bark stitches had ripped and began to bleed again.

“Damnit… I’m screwed,” he thought hopelessly, looking at the severe gash, tied by white strips of birch bark. He bit his lip looking at the seeping wound. Jeff didn’t know how much blood he could lose. Through the underbrush he could see the familiar, dull, orange gleam of a street light. “You’re almost there…get up, Jeff! Get up!”

He struggled to get to his knee and before the hard part of standing to his feet. He stood and leaned against a tree, panting with indistinguishable grunts. Jeff hobbled towards the lights. He felt weight being lifted onto his shoulders as he painfully stepped onto the comforting asphalt.

“I’m home… and out of that forest… thank Arceus.” Jeff his head and looked back into the forest and thought, “…Treecko…”

Jeff noticed a rustling in the bushes. He turned to face the noise in a worried prospect. Suddenly, a brown blur jumped towards him from out of the underbrush. Jeff stepped back in surprise but tripped and landed on his tailbone.

“Argh, what the!?”

“Zig…” the pokemon beamed expectantly.

Jeff looked in confusion wondering if it was the same Zigzagoon from early or if it was just really friendly.

“Have we met?” Jeff asked in inquiry.

The Zigzagoon nodded his head vigorously and rubbed against Jeff’s leg, overjoyed that he was still alive.

“You still hungry? Sure, I’ll leave the whole ‘abandoning me when I was about to die’ incident behind us…” Jeff teased.

Zigzagoon looked down, guiltily.

“Seriously though, it’s no problem, I’ll see if there’s anything left in my bag…” Jeff reassured, grabbing for the strap of his backpack, but he grabbed only cloth from his shirt.

Jeff turned his head to find that his backpack was not on his back. Jeff recalled back to where he dropped his backpack before being attacked by Scyther. He had to run, not bothering with the bag. Then he met Treecko, he remembered.

“Ugh, damnit…sorry bud, I forgot my backpack back at the lake. Now I have to go get it,” Jeff explained to the disappointed pokemon. Jeff was secretly terrified of going back into the forest… but he knew he had to get it.

Zigzagoon nodded and gestured Jeff to follow him back into the forest. Jeff slowly followed Zigzagoon though the under brush. Jeff saw familiar trees and grass patches while they slowly trudged. The trees became more spread out, although there were still large patches of bushes and underbrush to all of their sides. They were very wary of the unknown area. It felt like they would be sucked under the grass at any minute.

There was a noisy crackling of branches coming from the wall of shrubs. The two stepped back, cagey as to what the rustling was coming from. With the noise came gasps and heavy breathing. It became mind-numbingly louder, the anticipation was killing them.

“What if it’s Scyther?” Jeff thought, his legs beginning to tingle and gain adrenaline from the idea of the returning dread. The rustling grew louder; so did the panting. Zigzagoon snarled and put on a menacing face for Jeff. He growled but he could feel his small legs trembling in fear; Zigzagoon’s cowardly nature got the better of him and he caved in trepidation and bolted away.

“Coward!” Jeff called to him. “Oh crap… I’m completely alone. I can’t even run straight let alone escape. He left me… and now I’m screwed.” He stepped backwards but his equilibrium was still off from the blood loss. He fell down hard on his tailbone. Jeff could now see bright green moving in the bushes. The petrified teen braced himself and closed his eyes.

He awaited the blade as a doomed king awaited the guillotine. But nothing came; no pain, no “whish”, no Scyther. Jeff opened his eyes and saw the green silhouette of Treecko standing over him, his backpack in hand. The moonlight shined upon the Treecko, illuminating a healed scar down his green collarbone, which Jeff did not notice before.

A wave of relief swept over Jeff, although, he wondered where that Treecko had received that scar. Maybe from a fight… or torture. He wasn’t sure.

“You didn’t have to find me to give this back! I was perfectly capable…” insisted Jeff, before half being interrupted and half knowing that he couldn’t pull off the lie in his situation.

“Treecko cko tree Treecko,” Treecko laughed, mockingly.

“I only fell down once!” Jeff defended his view, even though he fell much more than that. “…But, really, thank you,” Jeff graciously thanked, picking up the backpack with his right hand.

Treecko turned to go back to his massive tree; he began to walk back into the thick brush. Jeff decided he would ask what he had planned to ask on their last encounter.

Jeff called to Treecko before he was camouflaged by the plants, “Hey Treecko…how would you like to come back to my home for some food?”

Treecko pondered for a minute and then his stomach growled loudly. He blushed and nodded, his stomach sealing the deal.

“Hah, great! I’ll lead the way back!” Jeff beamed as they tromped back the way he came. They walked through the underbrush until Jeff tripped over a white spiky rock. He managed to avoid falling on his bad arm this time, but the shock from the fall still sent a wave of pain into his arm. He groaned as he rolled on his back to see what he tripped on. That white spiky rock had angry, red eyes!

From behind the white, spiky pokemon, who was like a volleyball, appeared a white-bellied bug. Its back was bumpy and colored a bright red. Its beady yellow eyes stared angrily at Jeff. The Wurmple, who was seemingly friends with the Silcoon, began to yell at the two.

Treecko began to yell back at the two bugs pointing at Silcoon and then at Jeff. “Tree tree cko cko treecko!” he retorted, angrily but calmly.

Treecko had obviously struck a nerve with Wurmple. The p*ssed off bug let out a stream of white silk from his mouth. The string shot attack stuck to and wrapped around Treecko’s feet, tripping him backwards to the ground. The wood gecko groaned and then he tried to rip the sticky silk tying his feet. From his mouth, Wurmple shot out a volley of purple pins at Treecko.

Jeff’s eyes widened at the oncoming attack. Without time to think, he jumped in front of the attacking Wurmple and the helpless Treecko. He ripped the silk string from the grass type’s legs and picked him up with one arm. Jeff was aware of the poison pins coming at him from behind him, but he forced himself to protect the helpless Treecko, who was very weak to those poison attacks. Normally Jeff wouldn’t be so brave and reckless as to do this, but this time it was different.

Five purple pins dug into the back of Jeff’s right calf. Jeff let out a throaty growl, falling to his right knee, dropping Treecko. Treecko maneuvered around Jeff and ran at the Wurmple and Silcoon. He whipped his tail around him once, hitting the Wurmple into the forest. The wood gecko then ran towards the sitting Silcoon and kicked it in the face; it sailed into the forest after the red and white bug.

Treecko let out a grunt and ran back to Jeff, who looked at his red, swelling leg.

“Treecko tree tree?” Treecko asked quickly, gesturing to Jeff’s bag.

“Tools? Medicine? Antidote?” Jeff asked him, frantically trying to interpret him. “Yes, I think!” Jeff gave him the go ahead to dump out the bag.

Treecko scrambled through the cluttered items and found only tweezers and water.

“Treecko cko!?!” Treecko reprimanded him for not bringing good medicine.

“Who carries around poison antidotes anymore!?!?” Jeff shot back.

Treecko ignored that and walked up to Jeff’s wounded calf muscle. He used the tweezers to pull out the five needles. With each needle, Jeff grimaced; blood and a foreign yellow substance seeped from the holes.

Treecko indicated that Jeff’s leg was, indeed, poisoned.

“Damn…what can we do? We have no antidotes and we won’t make it to town!” Jeff sputtered with panic in his voice.

Treecko raised a finger, telling Jeff that he had a last chance idea.

Treecko picked up the silk that Wurmple shot, and tied it tightly above Jeff’s knee, cutting off the blood circulation from the leg to the rest of the body.

“Ok, so now the poison will only eat away at my leg!” Jeff grunted, starting to feel the burning poison in his veins. He looked down and saw that his leg was turning a sickly yellow color.

“Treecko tree!” Treecko gestured, pointing at his mouth and pointing to the wound.

Treecko slapped his head and began to make the gesture to his mouth, then Jeff’s leg, then made a passing motion behind him.

“Ohh, you want to get the poison out yourself?! No! Don’t do anything that will involve you getting poisoned instead!" Jeff stubbornly ordered, shutting down Treecko’s idea before he could pitch it. The poison began to slowly burn inside Jeff’s leg, causing the puncture wounds to swell out and ooze.

“Please, quickly think of something else!” Jeff urged, cringing. Treecko rubbed his chin in thought and then raised a finger in enlightenment.

Treecko quickly looked around at the ground for things he could use. He picked up a handful of small, red-speckled green leaves, a very thin, long reed, a wooden bowl from Jeff’s backpack, and a small rock. He threw the leaves into the bowl and began to grind them with the rock. He ground the leaves into a thick, white paste, added more leaves and repeated the process until there was a decent amount of paste in the bowl.

“What is that, some kind of antidote?” Jeff questioned, now beginning to see the bowl in double vision. His sight seemed to begin to amplify the light of the world; the midnight darkness began to seem more like dusk.

Treecko nodded and sucked the liquid into the straw-like reed, which he put in his mouth. He removed the reed from his mouth and put a finger over the end of the straw to ensure that the medicine wouldn’t drip out.

Jeff stared at Treecko nervously, who counted down with his fingers before he drove the reed into where the wounds were. He let go of the top of the reed and began to blow hard into the reed. Jeff grimaced as the substance entered his blood stream. He could feel the crudely made medicine compromise his poison-flooded blood. Treecko took the reed out of his leg and could see a mixture of blood, poison, pus, and medicine drip from the wounds. Lastly, he tied a leaf tightly around the wounds and folded his arms, proudly.

“I really don’t know how to thank you…I owe you two!” Jeff smiled, some color returning to his face. “If you keep saving me I could probably nominate you to get you knighted!” chuckled Jeff, weakly.

“Cko tree” Treecko said as he put up one finger, reminding Jeff that he saved his *ss from Wurmple, so therefore, only one.

Jeff smiled at this as he tried to get to his feet. Treecko held and supported Jeff’s wounded leg as he stood. Jeff fell back against a tree and slumped to the ground, unconscious. After what seemed to Jeff like ages, he awoke and struggled to sit upright. His arm and leg still seared with pain. He quickly looked around him, no Treecko in sight.

“Tree…Treecko?” Jeff called out in a raspy voice; his mouth was very dry.

“Cko? Treecko?” Jeff heard a voice reply from above him. Treecko stared down at Jeff from a branch of the tree, which Jeff slept against. It was still night so Jeff could only see the yellow glint of his eyes. Treecko hopped down the tree and, once again, helped Jeff stand. They began to slowly walk through the forest towards Jeff’s house, into the dark, misting forest. After a painstaking half hour, they finally reached the edge of Littleroot Town.

“Follow my lead,” Jeff advised weakly.

Jeff, followed by Treecko, passed Professor Birch’s lab; all but one light was off and it was closed for the night. They walked down the straight, dirt road towards Jeff’s house. By now the streetlights were off and the streets were deserted.

They walked up to a medium sized home with white panels and a black roof. Treecko helped Jeff up the stairs and Jeff withdrew a key from his pocket. He inserted the key stealthily into the slot and slowly clicked it open.

Jeff and Treecko walked quietly straight down the dark hall to his kitchen. Mud and leaves from their feet littered the hallway when they walked to the tiled kitchen. Jeff turned on a light and saw Tyrogue standing on top of the tiled counter, staring accusingly.

Another pokemon entered from another room, to the left of Jeff and Treecko. The pokemon’s four legs walked from the hardwood floor to the white tile. It had light green skin and a bulb-like head. Protruding from the scalp of the head was a large, dark green broad leaf. The pokemon also had a necklace of buds, from one of the buds came a long green vine, which the pokemon used to scratch its tired eyes with.

“Chiko?” peeped the Chikorita with an obviously female voice. She looked over at Jeff and noticed the grass type in the shadows behind Jeff. Chikorita stared at the wood gecko, intrigued.

Tyrogue also saw Treecko, as well as Chikorita looking at the unfamiliar pokemon, and hopped down from the counter, parallel of Jeff and Treecko, fists raised and ready to fight.

“TYR!” He yelled as if yelling, “INTRUDER!”

Tyrogue ran towards Treecko, fists up. Treecko prepared to defend himself. Chikorita let out a vine whip from the darkness and restrained Tyrogue’s arms before he could attack Treecko.

“Settle down, man. Treecko here saved me twice. I brought him back here as a thanks. Tyrogue, why don’t you make us some sandwiches? You do owe me one after losing that arm wrestle last week…” Jeff grinned.

Chikorita released Tyrogue, who scowled and reluctantly opened the fridge, which was in the right corner of the kitchen, and took out supplies.

Treecko rechecked Jeff’s leg wound to make sure it wasn’t badly infected. As Treecko and Jeff were distracted, Tyrogue slipped a few extremely hot peppers into their sandwiches. He then walked over to the two and handed them a plate with two large sandwiches on it with an impish grin. Jeff thanked Tyrogue and the two dug into the food. To Tyrogue’s dismay, Jeff and Treecko were unmoved by the hot peppers.

“Hey Tyrogue, this is really good! I should beat you in an arm wrestle more often!” Jeff grinned as they finished up the food and left the kitchen.

Chikorita began to laugh at Tyrogue’s failed attempt at the prank. She was answered by a cold glare.

“Hey Treecko, I’m going to go up to the washroom to put some disinfectant on these wounds, feel free to get acquainted with Tyrogue and Chikorita,” Jeff clarified.

Treecko decided to hang about, solitary, in the hallway, deciding to keep to himself rather than branch out to the other two pokemon. Tyrogue walked up to Treecko and outstretched a hand. Treecko stared at the hand and then back up at Tyrogue.

“<Ok…anyways, my name is Tyrogue. It’s nice to meet Jeff’s two time savior,>” Tyrogue kidded himself through his teeth.

“<Uh huh, I’m Treecko,>” he replied, without enthusiasm. Tyrogue was taken aback by this attitude, but he still tried to pretend to be nice.

Treecko shook his head. “<Well technically he saved me once so he only…’owes me’ one,>” he explained.

“<I guess he thought that this visit would make up for it, then,>” Tyrogue grinned.

“<What do you mean?>” Treecko questioned.

“<Well you just met Jeff, so you wouldn’t know…>” Tyrogue began, “<Jeff is a very proud guy, he can’t let a good favor towards him go unrewarded. He would feel as if it’s charity, which he finds insulting to receive,>” Tyrogue explained, twisting the truth.

Treecko began to think. “<…I thought he was being generous because he wanted to be friends,>” he said, beginning to question himself.

“<Well you’d think that…but really…no. Trust me, I’ve known Jeff for a long time, he hates owing people and hates even more to be owed,>” Tyrogue bluntly put it. Although Treecko didn’t know it, Tyrogue clearly didn’t want Treecko anywhere near him or Jeff… or Chikorita.

Tyrogue patted his back. “<C’mon pal, don’t be so hard on yourself,>” Tyrogue feigned encouragement. “<My advice, get out of here before you accidentally save him again…or vice versa,>” Tyrogue muttered with a proud scowl.

Treecko began to walk towards the door, head dragging slightly. Chikorita glared at Tyrogue, who beamed happily back at her; his plan had worked! Jeff walked down the stairs beside them.

Treecko, hurt, began to exit the front door.

“You’re going now?” Jeff asked glumly.

Treecko nodded and began to walk outside. “Treecko tree,” he sadly thanked Jeff for the food.

“Here, let me walk with you to the edge of the forest,” Jeff offered.

In silence, the two walked down the steps and down the front walkway. The streetlights had been turned off so the road was dark. They turned left at the sidewalk and walked up the incredibly long road which stopped at the forest. All that could be heard was their light footsteps as well as the soft hums of Kricketots and the light wing beats of the occasional Zubat. As soon as they were out of sight, Tyrogue closed the door and smiled with a self-satisfied grin.

“<The minute I saw him, I hated the ugly *sshole, did you see the way he ignored me?>”

“<I guess I shouldn’t be surprised…his collected solitary attitude must be very threatening to your strong, alpha male masculinity…just like with Jeff and that Alan guy from down the street…>” Chikorita grinned slyly.

“<Cram it, Chikky!>” Tyrogue shot back.

“<Aw, did I strike a nerve?” Chikorita mocked. “<But seriously, why’d you have to go and do that? I liked him; I thought he was cool and cute and handsome and…>” Chikorita gazed off, starry eyed.

“<Well you can forget about the wedding bells, sis, because he ain’t coming back!>” Tyrogue smirked, evilly.

Jeff and Treecko had walked in silence the entire time until they reached the forest edge and stopped.

The two locked on each other’s eyes and nodded. Treecko slowly trudged off into the forest and Jeff limped back to his house.

After five minutes of walking, Jeff turned his head back and looked at the forest. He saw a brief flash of light in the forest as he turned his head back forward.

“What was that?!” he asked himself, double taking. “Was that… nah, it couldn’t have been little Treecko. Must’ve been another pokemon… maybe I’m still woozy from the blood loss. Now that I think of it… I’m exhausted.”

He walked up his steps and collapsed on the porch, slumped against the metal railing.

He stared off into space until he saw Professor Birch proudly march by him, a pokeball in hand.

“Hello there, Jeff!” greeted Professor Birch, smugly.

“Hey there, Professssss…” Jeff fell on his back, falling into sleep. When Professor Birch galumphed off, Jeff stared up at the stars and finally fell asleep on the hard, wooded porch.

Tyrogue opened the door and found Jeff wiped out. He dragged Jeff inside and placed him on a couch in the living room, to the left of hallway. Jeff went to the hospital in the morning, as well as to visit that old tree. Little did he know, he would be very disappointed.

4 Months Ago

“I can’t believe it!” Jeff grunted, punching air in a martial arts stance: one foot forward and one foot sideways. “Do you think he just upped and left?”

“Rogue, tyrooo tyrogue!” Tyrogue shrugged and urged Jeff to focus.

Tyrogue, who belonged to Jeff’s family, tutored Jeff in the martial arts as well as training. Every second day they would work out and body build every muscle. Every other day would be for the training of various basic and complex martial arts.
This was in anticipation for beginning his rough journey.

The lights were turned off and it was night time; they were practicing fighting in the dark. This helped to improve the awareness of the senses other than sight. Jeff stepped forwards towards Tyrogue, who aimed a punch for his face. Jeff deflected the punch with his left and landed a punch of his own with his right. Tyrogue was thrown backwards, but used the momentum from the force to land on his hand and bounce back at Jeff, feet first. Jeff flew backwards and landed on the practice mat, in a room similar to a small gym.

Jeff got to his feet and wiped the blood from his lip. He stepped forwards, ready for more. Tyrogue turned on the lights, raised a thumb, and pointed with it behind them, indicating that they should have a break.

“You’re sure growing strong… I wouldn’t be surprised if you evolved soon,” Jeff complimented. He looked down, a lot on his mind. Mostly he thought about how Treecko disappeared or how he was ignoring him. He wondered if he did something wrong when Treecko came to his house. Maybe he simply hated him.

Jeff walked over to the side of the room and poured water on himself.

“I’ve been going to that tree twice a week for the past eight months; he wasn’t there each of the times. I’ve tried everything! I’ve even searched the entire forest with a Pidgey that I borrowed from Professor Birch. Did I say something wrong? Maybe he found a new home or maybe he’s…no! He’s around, he’s just out!” Jeff complained, in denial.

Tyrogue looked down, guiltily. He was upset at himself for having ruined Jeff’s friendship with the pokemon, as much as he hated that Treecko. Tyrogue gave him a light punch of encouragement with the words. “Tyr-ro-rogue, tyro,” he said, trying to be optimistic.

The two went down to the kitchen to add ice to their cuts. Jeff didn’t mind the pain of the sparring. The pain gave him adrenaline, which kept him wanting to fight more. The training was good for both Tyrogue and Jeff. They entered the kitchen and Jeff opened the freezer, since Tyrogue was much too short. He threw a bag of ice to Tyrogue, who looked at the back. The glass door at the back of the kitchen led to their nature-ridden, small backyard.

“Rogue ty tyro?” Tyrogue asked as he splashed water on his face. Tyrogue held up three pictures that he found strewn on the counter. On them were the three possible starting pokemon for Littleroot Town. On the first picture was the familiar lizard-like face of Treecko. The second had an orange chick-like pokemon known as Torchic. The third was a picture of Mudkip, a blue quadruped mudfish pokemon. Jeff probably would have been able to tell what Tyrogue was saying without the reiteration. This was because he has been around and that they have been such good friends that Tyrogue was pretty much like a human.

“Treecko…” Jeff mumbled, “I don’t know about it, anymore. At this point it could be just about any of them!” he explained, contemplating the options. He hopped up on the counter next to Tyrogue and began to think. He pictured three different scenarios in his mind. In each he thought of leaving the lab with each starter and compared what each one would be like. The Mudkip seemed like it would be the most fun to journey with. Jeff could see it hopping around him, all excited and happy. He then thought of Torchic. He pictured the Torchic being very affectionate towards him. With it Jeff would never feel lonely. But Jeff kept coming around to Treecko. He didn’t imagine Treecko being fun or loving… the wood gecko was just there, walking beside him calmly. He didn’t know why he, or anyone, would choose Treecko over the others… and perhaps they didn’t. But Jeff couldn’t see himself traveling with any pokemon other than Treecko. It just didn’t fit. Jeff may not have much of a choice in the matter anyways… it all depends who gets who first.

Before taking a drink of water, Jeff exclaimed, “I think I know who I want to choose…”

As Jeff downed an entire glass of water in one gulp he noticed something moving outside. Tyrogue saw this too and ran to the door, followed by Jeff. They opened the glass door and looked outside.

“Tyrogue? Ro! Tyyy!” called out the pokemon, calling out for them to show themselves. There was no reply. Jeff saw movement in the tree and then something bound from the branch to over a fence and away. Jeff shoved through Tyrogue and ran over to the wooden fence. He jumped up and supported himself with his arms, looking around the backyard behind him. After scanning the area for minutes, and closing his eyes to hear better, Jeff jumped down and trudged back inside with Tyrogue.

“<It was probably just a Pidgey,>” muttered Tyrogue.

Jeff sensed that something was at the glass door, behind him. But, he quickly turned around, saw nothing and heard a light scampering.

“Yeah, it was probably a Pidgey,” mumbled Jeff, disappointed.

The two wobbled off to their respective beds and fell asleep. Jeff had still dreamed of seeing that Treecko again, but his quest for going out of his way to look for him was over.

Although the radiance burned my eyes, it was the sweet feeling of being free which overtook me. It was hell in there. It brought back so many bad memories - memories which created the feeling of Carvanhas gnawing at my spine. Internally I was overjoyed to be free. I swore I would never return back in there.

I felt myself land on a spotless, white, human ground which was the shape of squares. I was back inside what they called ‘the laboratory’… I was no stranger to this place. It was like one of the human’s homes except much bigger. Two bursts of light materialized to both of my sides.

“Lunch time, you three,” said the jolly voice which I came to hate.

I stood up and looked around me. To my right was an orange bird-like pokemon with a round head and a puny body in comparison. He had three feathers on his head which resembled a flame. He had an orange body and goldenrod feathers for either arms or wings, either way they were useless. He also had sharp brown claws. That Torchic had an attitude problem which created hostility between us. We got into a few fights where the pokemon to my left always cheered for him.

I looked over to my left and saw the other pokemon who I loathed equally. A sapphire-colored, four-legged pokemon planted its white finned *ss on the inside ground. On his annoyingly enthusiastic face was a large blue fin along with orange whisker-like gills on his cheeks. His beady eyes stared at the Torchic’s. They walked ahead to where there were three red dishes filled with food. The two began to eat.

“Aren’t you hungry?” the voice asked.

I ignored him and looked around the room.

There it was! An open… What did the humans call it? … A window! It was high up on the wall beside a table, but I could make it. It was my portal out of there.

I ran towards it on all fours. I passed by the Torchic, deliberately hitting him in the back the head with my tail, causing him to fall into his dish of food. I made the traditional harmonic taunt, like a juvenile, but my smugness of being free overruled my disdain of immaturity.

“What are you doing?! Come back here!” he called out.

I didn’t turn my head. I jumped out of the building, away from the words, “Arceus, not again!”

The grass felt rejuvenating on my feet. I felt life come back to me as the dawn sunlight hit my skin. I knew they would find me again, but that didn’t stop me.

Jeff quickly jogged down his front steps. He took a left turn, jogging down the asphalt, towards Birch’s Pokemon Lab.

Jeff went from a steady jog to a sprint towards the lab, aware of the time. “The early Taillow gets the Wurmple,” he thought to himself, speeding up. A guy on a bike, who had a small, blue, flightless bird hanging onto his shoulder, began to pass Jeff. He smirked at the guy, and began to have a race with him. The guy was unaware of Jeff beginning to surpass him as they neared the lab. The distance to the building shortened as he ran. He was almost there! Jeff looked at the guy, who looked back, and smiled. But then, what appeared to be a Torchic crossed his path.

“Tor-chic, tor-chic, tor-chic,” it chirped obliviously as it walked.

Jeff couldn’t slow down. He hit it and his legs went sailing backwards as he went flying onto the dirt road. He landed with a skid, dirt chalking his face and knees. Jeff lay sideways on the ground and saw the guy and his strange pokemon ride past the lab, dismount their bike, and walk into the forest.

“Ughhh, you ok?” Jeff asked the Torchic who was standing at his feet, pretty PO’d.

“Chic! Tor tor chic! Chic!” it peeped angrily.

“I can only assume that’s something mean,” Jeff said with a half-smile.

Jeff dusted himself off and saw a person jogging towards him. A girl Jeff’s age, whom he recognized, came running up to Torchic.

“Torchic, I told you not to go running ahead of me like that!” she reprimanded it, as she cradled Torchic in her arms.

“Tor…” Torchic said, looking at the ground, ashamed.

“Sorry about that si-…Jeff!? How are you?” The girl asked happily to Jeff.

The wind blew through the girl’s somewhat short brown hair, but it was dyed a reddish-brown color. Jeff stood taller than her, she being about 5’9” in height, with an incredibly cute face. A wave of joy swept over Jeff, seeing as he has had a huge crush on this girl ever since they took a Pokemon Biology class together last year, taught by Professor Birch.

“Hey there…Kristie, I’m fine. It’s no big deal; I shouldn’t have been rushing to the lab so quickly,” Jeff said apologetically but trying to sound as calm and confident as possible. “Speaking of which, you must have been coming back from there. Did you choose Torchic here?” Jeff asked.

“Yes I did. he’s so cute, too,” Kristie replied.

“Yeah, he’s great,” Jeff humored her. He then realized that other trainers must have gone to the lab, too. “Oh, are the other two pokemon still available?” Jeff asked, worried. Jeff thought about if he didn’t get his pokemon today. He would have to wait another month! Then he would have gotten all prepared for nothing.

“Other two? There was only one other pokemon there - a Mudkip, and Alan took that one.”

As Kristie went out of earshot Jeff muttered to himself, “Fack! Smooth, Jeff, real smooth…” Jeff mentally beat himself up, kicking a stick that lay on the ground.

He opened the glass door. The spacious one roomed lab had book-crammed shelves lining the walls. There were many complex machines used for physical and genetic examinations. Professor Birch was getting up from his desk, a pokeball in hand, just as he noticed Jeff enter.

“I’m sorry, Jeff. The Mudkip and Torchic are both gone…” Professor Birch answered guiltily, twiddling his thick beard on his young and rather wide face. He was one of the younger pokemon professors.

“I know, but what about the Treecko?!” he hastily answered.

“He… escaped early this morning. You’re going to have to wait a few more weeks until the new shipment of starters arrived… although I might have a back up Torchic and Mudkip…” explained the professor.

“I really think that we should go get that Treecko. It could be in danger…”

Biting the inside of his cheek, Birch replied with a reluctant nod.

“Are you positive?” Professor Birch asked again. Jeff nodded adamantly, to which he sighed. “Very well. We’ll get the Treecko back and then you can choose from the three.”

Jeff was confused as to why Professor Birch was so skeptical about finding the Treecko.

The two humans left the laboratory and turned right and then walked right again, going into Route 101. Instead of going down the path that led north to Oldale Town, Professor Birch led him north-east into the forest - a familiar path. Hollowed out logs, large jutting out sticks, roots stubbornly refusing to stay under the earth, and fallen leaves littered the forest bed. They walked carefully through the woodlands, passing by curious Zigzagoons and Wurmples. Jeff smiled at the pokemon while walking by them. He carefully traipsed through the rough terrain, all the while keeping a look out for the lost Treecko.

“It’s going to be taxing trying to find the Treecko in all of this foliage. It’ll be like finding a swimming Vaporeon while its acid coat is activated,” Birch mused.

“I’ll be able to spot him…” Jeff said to himself, with assurance.

While walking through the hauntingly familiar terrain, Jeff couldn’t help but think of the Treecko that had saved him. Although he was optimistic, he highly doubted that the Treecko that they were looking for was, indeed, the same one. Jeff was just searching for the silver medal seeing as he wouldn’t settle for bronze.

“Are we wandering aimlessly or do you actually know where we’re going?” he asked Professor Birch.

Jeff’s optimism gained at the prospect of going to the old tree. “Maybe it really is the same one…” he thought.

They continued to walk through the dense woods. Light filtered through the branches before hitting the mossy forest bed. Crushing sticks, twigs, and fallen leaves as they went, the two meandered on. After a little more walking, the professor stopped.

“What’s the matter?” he asked Birch.

“We’re almost there…”

Jeff was feeling a sharp solution of excitement and fear whether the Treecko was the same one from his past and whether they were going where he thought they were going.

The underbrush grew thick and climbed above their heads. All that Jeff could see in front of him were plants and the white lab coat of Professor Birch moving through them. The professor disappeared ahead of him. He kept moving forwards until the ocean of underbrush ended and he walked out into a clearing.

There it was.

The massive tree. It looked old and almost as if it was dying. The colossal trunk grew incredibly tall and created an immense canopy with thick branches. Not far away was the lake. Standing just to Jeff’s left was Professor Birch.

I rested on a branch, which was about two and a half stories above the ground as humans would call it, and was leaning against the trunk. One of my legs was outstretched and the other was bent; my arm rested on my bent knee while the other arm was back near my tail, supporting me from falling back. I kept a watchful eye open as I idly chewed on my twig.

This was the only place that I truly felt comfortable. I only hoped that I could make it last.

I heard a rustling in the underbrush down below to my left. I quickly turned my head to see the intruder. Arceus help it if it tries to get near my tree. I saw white appear from the bushes.

It was him - the human who fed us and did tests on other pokemon! He wouldn’t bring me back there if I could help it. He looked up at the tree, probably in search of me. I heard and saw more movement in the bushes behind him but before I could find out what it was, something caught my instincts. I quickly turned my head back forward to find a winged pokemon land on the same branch as I. A golden-brown feathered bird perched on the end of it. His sharp-stick like beak was almost as long as his lengthy neck. The wind brushed by his red crest, blowing it slightly to the side.

“<He may be over twice my size but I’m not about to back down because if that. He doesn’t intimidate me and he’s not going to get away with stepping his dirty talons on my home!>” I thought.

I stood up from my relaxed stance and began to walk towards him on the thick, sturdy branch; the sharp, tiny hooks on my feet dug into the bark for good grip. The bird turned his ugly head towards me and stared in question. My reply was a cold, intimidating glare which pierced into his brown eyes.

“<I won’t forget what one of his kind did to me the day that all of it happened…>”

“<Damned Fearows.>”

“<What do you want?>” he asked me, irked.

“<Get… the… hell… out… of… my… tree… >” I responded. I made sure to carefully put a threatening emphasis on each word.

“<Why should I, you little runt?>” responded the Fearow with a cockiness which I wanted to beat out of him.

“<Get out… or I’ll rip out your feathers and shove them down your big beak,>” I threatened again, still leering dead center into his eyes.

He let out a caw of over-assured mockery. I tightened my fists, bit down on my twig, and readied my tail for a swing. The Fearow flapped his large brown wings and flew over my head to land behind me on the branch, blocking my way back to the trunk. I glowered and assumed a battle stance.

“<Sure you want to do this, puny Treecko?>” he asked.

My anger queued up inside me as I calmly stepped towards him. Without a word I swung my body around 360 degrees, smacking the Fearow across the face. He was undeniably shocked by the action, but he quickly shook it off and, in rage, shot his head forward towards me. I aptly pivoted my body to avoid the beak strike. The Fearow tried to stab at me two more times but to no avail.

I readied myself for another attack but I saw something out of the corner of my eye. I could see a new human-shaped figure standing beside the first one. I turned my head to get a better focus on it. It was undeniably the same human that I had met not too long ago.

“<Jeff?!>” I muttered to myself in shock.

While distracted, the bird caught me off guard. He took the opportunity to land a quick piercing peck on my shoulder. I felt his spear-like beak enter my collar and come out just as fast.

“Tree!” I yelled out as the burning pain over took my shoulder. I stepped back on the branch and prepared to attack but the beak strike came like lightning. Three more hits were landed in my leg, chest, and arm. If it weren’t for me attempting to move away, the chest hit may have been fatal.

“Cko…cko…cko…” I panted through gritted teeth. I ran forwards to jump and attack but found myself hit backwards onto the branch in mid air. I landed on my feet and then it came… the excruciating rain of pecks. They were so fast that I didn’t know where each peck hit, all that I knew was that my body felt like it was on fire.

“NO!” said a voice from the ground below. I opened my eyes and looked down to see many shallow cuts riddling my body along with trickles of blood from each. With each strike I was forced back on the branch, bringing me closer to the end of it. I felt so helpless, so weak.

“<You’re going to die… you’d might as well go out fighting. A soldier’s death is more than honorable,>” I thought to myself when I thought all was lost.

I charged the flying pokemon, expecting the worst. But I stopped; I noticed two hands grab onto the branch, near the trunk. Following the hands was the green clothed body of the human whom I familiarized myself with as Jeff. The Fearow had also stopped the attack and turned sideways to see the human standing on the thick branch, barefoot. He began to slowly approach the angry bird, who began to peck at me again.

“You two, stop! Fearow, cut it out!” I managed to hear him say through my own grunts.

The Fearow was having none of his order. The winged pokemon, whose beak was dripping with my blood, turned and with a lighting fast jolt, hit Jeff in the cheek. He stumbled back and almost lost balance. A decent trickle of both of our bloods seeped from his cheek and dripped down and off of his chin. I could tell that he felt the same searing pain that I was feeling all over.

The bird turned back to me and I raised my arms for protection. Jeff, now in clear rage, grabbed Fearow by the throat and swung him around, throwing him back against the trunk. The injured bird groaned and Jeff walked carefully over to me.

“Treecko? I… hey. We can talk later but we have to get the hell out of this tree!” he advised.

I shook my head and glowered. I still had a fight to finish. I had a gut feeling I could still win. I tried to get past him but he shifted to block me.

“Come on, get on my back and I’ll take you down!”

I let out another grunt and ignored his request. I managed to get around Jeff so I could face Fearow, who was now standing up and then he began to fly towards me. I readied my tail to deflect the bird’s beak but was shocked to see Jeff’s legs step in front of me, blocking my sight of the assailant.

“<Get out of the way!>” I yelled, which must have sounded like “Tree cko cko tree!” to him.

The bird began to peck at Jeff in a fury. I could hear the grizzly yet familiar sounds of the beak entering the flesh.

“Treecko… save yourself… get out of here…” he said through a grimace.

Rage built as it hit me. He still owed me for saving him from the poison. That was the only reason why he was here doing this! I disobeyed his plea and got around him to continue the fight on my own. Through the rain of strikes both of our skins were pierced by the Fearow’s drilling mouth.

The Fearow briefly stopped to catch his breath. “Treecko, if you’re as stubborn as I am, we’re going to be in a lot of trouble! Get on my back already!”

He knew I was, if not more so. I landed a solid whack on the bird beak but it quickly recovered and began to peck at me again. The pain was unbearable now.

Jeff took forceful action; he grabbed me in my weakened state and spun around so his back faced Fearow. He pressed me against his chest; my blood stained his shirt upon a mere touch. I could see the Fearow begin to peck at his back, making him wince and growl.

“Treecko, please… get out of here…” he pleaded through clenched teeth.

“<Do you actually care if I’m ok or do you only care if your pride is free of guilt and shame?>” I asked in a cold, angry manner.

Although he didn’t know what I said, I could tell by his eyes that those words stabbed him deeper than the Fearow’s beak was. Although taken aback, he still begged, “Please, Treecko, I’m doing this because I care about you. If you stay here you’re going to die! I don’t want you to get hurt! COME ON!”

“<He's serious! He's really worried about me… Does this mean Tyrogue was lying? Why would he care about me like this…? I don’t think anyone has before. It just doesn’t make sense!>”

A new respect for this human, Jeff, flooded through me. Nevertheless, I still tried to escape his tight grasp. I couldn’t let him take these blows for the fight I started! What kind of Treecko would I be if I did?

All of a sudden, the light pecks stopped and Jeff relaxed his muscles, giving me a chance to get free. We both turned around to hear a hammering noise. Much to our dismay, the Fearow, with a malicious glint in his eye, was pecking through the branch on which we stood. Already halfway through the wood, he was making short work of the branch. We knew what was coming. Before we had anytime to run, we felt the branch fall from under us.

Without a sound, Jeff grabbed for me in mid air. He managed to get a hold of one of my tails and he pulled me close to him. Jeff curled up to protect me from the blunt of the fall. I couldn’t believe it. Even in this drastic time he was still trying to save me. It overwhelmed me that anyone would do that… especially do that for me.

My tree luckily had a dense and low canopy. Small branches that we hit either broke or brushed by us, slowing our descent. We hit a particularly thick branch - about as thick as his arm. Jeff cried out as it broke on impact with his spine. Almost immediately after, a sharp stick whipped up Jeff’s face, leaving a deep scar which further opened the initial peck wound. We hit many of the softer and weaker branches below, which whisked up around us. The actually relatively short fall seemed like an eternity.

It finally happened. We hit the mossy ground with a thud. I rolled from Jeff’s arms and toppled meters away from him.

“…Ckoooo” I groaned, gasping for breath. I looked up at Jeff and saw that he wasn’t moving. Despite my wounds, I ran over to him and kneeled to his side. I then check his pulse and put my head to his bloodied chest for heart sounds.

“Treecko?” I asked, hoping to Arceus he was alright.

Jeff groaned but through gasps of air insisted, “I’m ok, Treecko-ergh-really…”

I then did something to both our surprise. I licked the bleeding cut on his cheek… not to check for poison, but as a gesture of gratitude and affection. I was shocked that I actually did that. I immediately sheepishly turned away and blushed.

“<He probably thinks I’m some kind of sappy idiot now,>” I thought, scratching the back of my head.

To my shock, with a warm expression, he answered, “Thank you, Treecko.”

I turned back around with a grin, folded my arms, and shook my head. “<Don’t thank me, thank you!>“ I said, which still sounded as “Treecko tree, tree cko!”

Our eyes met. We grinned and I shook his hand with my tail and he shook my tail with his hand. It was reminiscent to when we first met.

“Call it even this time?” Jeff asked with a grin.

With a large smirk I replied with, “Cko.”

The guy came over to us saying, “Thank goodness you two are ok… all things considered.”

“Yeah, thanks Professor Birch…”

Professor Birch. So THAT was his name. Everytime I heard that guy’s voice I was immediately reminded of that damned man-made prison.

“…I- hey… is that Fearow mocking us?” Jeff asked, staring in the sky. Sure enough, the Fearow was using the same immature taunt that I had used upon escaping the lab.

“<Cocky b*stard,>” Jeff and I both said in our native tongues.

“We have to get back to the lab immediately! You two are horribly hurt; I have some potions there!” Professor Birch insisted.

We nodded and helped each other to our feet. I went to walk but I found my legs had failed me; I fell forwards to be land on Jeff’s shoe which he outstretched for me to land on. He then brought his foot up to hand level and then he picked me up in his hands. Cradled in his arms, I grinned and closed my eyes from exhaustion.

We had made it through the forest and were now, to my disdain, behind the lab. Jeff’s arm was around Professor Birch’s shoulder to use his body for support as he carried me. They walked around the human made structure and went in the front. Jeff collapsed against the wall and I remained on his lap, unable to move without severe pain.

Professor Birch handed him a clear bottle with a blue cap. “Here, Jeff. To use the potion just hold down the blue button on the top and point it.”

Jeff nodded and looked down at me. “Sorry, Treecko. This is gonna hurt,” he explained remorsefully. He then sprayed the yellow-green liquid on my wounds. My cuts burned but I refused to show any pain. Jeff applied the potion to his own cuts afterwards.

“The potion should heal the cuts, for the most part, in an hour or two. Jeff, you can expect a scar on your face, though,” the professor guy explained.

Jeff slowly got to his feet. Then he said, “Professor… that was quite the adventure, but I think I’m ready to choose my starting pokemon.”

Beginning to quickly go through his desk and then cabinets, he said, “Of course, but first I have a funny story about Treecko here… about how I caught him.”

Jeff leaned in curiously but a knot tied in my stomach. “<No, don’t tell him that!>” I thought angrily.

“… Exactly one year ago today, I found this Treecko walking in the forest… I think he was going back to that tree we were at. Anyways, I was amazed to see a Treecko wandering alone in the forest. So I took out a pokeball to try to battle and catch it but he just stood there, not even trying to put up a fight. So I caught him without even having to send out a pokemon. It’s funny because that doesn’t seem like something that THIS Treecko would ever have done!” Professor Birch chuckled.

“Tree treecko tree cko!” I yelled in protest. Why would he tell him that?!

“So you LET yourself be captured?!” Jeff asked me, visibly angry. “After all that time I tried to find you, you were here all along?! Why!?”

Guiltily, I opened my mouth to defend myself but that damned human cut me off.

“YES! I found an extra Torchic and Mudkip! Now you have all three to choose from…” He trailed off when he noticed I was glaring at him with an angry and upset look.

He threw the two prison cages, which they called pokeballs, on the ground, releasing a different orange Torchic and a new blue Mudkip.

“Toorrrchic tor!” chirped the fire spitting chick cutely.

“Kip mudkip!” barked the enthusiastic and cheerful Mudkip.

They both ran past me and stood in front of Jeff. Each tried to be more appealing than me and the other one. My face grew the familiar indifferent yet disheartened look.

“<This won’t be a new feeling,>” I thought, apathetically on the outside, morosely on the inside. I knew that with those two battling for the spotlight, I’d never get picked… not even by Jeff. It’s happened before and it’ll happen again. I awaited the familiar feeling of being discarded for the cute and the happy.

“<This is all your fault anyways! If you didn’t let yourself be captured just because you listened to some jackass Tyrogue, then Jeff wouldn’t be p*ssed off at you! He might have actually considered taking you if it wasn’t for your idiocy! Instead you’re going to be stuck back here with these clowns, either being stuck in your pokeball or being exiled by the other two pokemon… not that you wanted to be around them. Damn it, Gri… err, I mean Treecko,>” I scolded myself.

With apathy, I said, “<Enjoy your journey, Torchic or Mudkip. Take good care of him…>” In my head I finished the sentence with “<… You idiots.>”

“<Maybe the reason you don’t get picked is because you don’t try.>” So I decided to take a last ditch, futile effort; I walked in front of the other two and looked deep into his eyes before nodding. That’s all I allowed myself to do.

Jeff kneeled down to my eye level, ignoring the other two. “Would you really want to leave your tree and come with me?”

That was a tough question. I stared off into the distance, many conflicting thoughts running through my head. “<Do I stay and pass up the only opportunity that I have? Or do I risk it and leave?>” After several moments I stared at him and nodded.

Everyone was surprised. The professor and the other two choices sighed. My jaw dropped in shock. “<Was this guy serious? Does he actually want to choose me… over them?! I can’t believe anyone would! This guy, Jeff, is different,>” I thought in dumbfounded amazement.

After all my hope was lost and then regained into a massive injection of it. Without knowing it, I found myself on Jeff’s shoulder hugging the side of his face. The uncalled for affection, I noticed, was causing him to blush and smirk. I stopped myself, ashamed that I let my weaker emotions get the better of me. I jumped back down to the ground, maintaining my cool, uncaring demeanor.

“<I’m not sure I’ve ever been this happy.>”

“It’s your funeral,” Professor Birch mumbled, just loud enough for us to hear.

“What do you mean?” Jeff shot back, not unkindly.

“Jeff… can I talk to you for a few minutes?”

He nodded and walked to the Professor’s side.

“It’s about that Treecko…” he tried to whisper, but little did they know my ears picked up on the conversation.

“Yeah? What is it?” Jeff whispered back.

“I’ve had that Treecko for twelve months and not one trainer has chosen it. I can’t get more than one starting pokemon of each species until the last of each one has been given to trainer. That’s why, after this guy came along, you’ve never seen anyone else leaving Littleroot Town with one.”

“I still don’t understand. Why wouldn’t anybody take him?”

“You see… this Treecko is incredibly independent and stubborn. No matter who you are, he won’t listen to you unless he respects you. Which few pokemon honestly do so early on in the journey. Most trainers are overwhelmed by pokemon who are like this… even veteran trainers. When the new trainers come to pick one, he doesn’t even try to get picked and he doesn’t exactly flow well with them anyways. I really don’t blame them for not picking him. Are you sure you won’t reconsider?”

I overheard the conversation and the words hit hard. I knew I was constantly a jerk to Professor Birch, but I never thought he’d try so hard to break me and Jeff apart. Jeff turned around and kneeled down to my level. The knot in my stomach returned. “<Here it comes.>”

“So you’re a rebel, huh?” he asked me, to which my eyes turned to the floor. Much to my surprise he said, “I like the sound of that!” I smugly raised my chest up in grin, still twiddling the twig in my mouth with my tongue.

Professor Birch, not caring to whisper anymore, insisted, “Jeff? … Are you sure?”

“I’m positive! You can’t disregard a pokemon just because of their personality… it isn’t fair!” he insisted.

“Very well… but don’t come back here with your tail between your legs if it doesn’t work out, soldier on,” he warned. I wanted to pound him across the face right then. If he made me lose a potential friend than I swore I’d tear this lab inside out the next change I got.

“No problem, Treecko and I will be great journey-partners!” Jeff insisted.

“Anyways, here is your pokedex and five pokeballs…” he said, handing Jeff a red rectangle machine that could be fit into one of their pockets as well as five miniature spheres which were not expanded to their true size. “… And allow me to try and return Treecko to his pokeball.”

There it was. He pointed the ball at me, on the ground. A red light shot from it but I gracefully jumped out of the way in time. He tried to recall me back to the cell again but I dodged and leapt up onto Jeff’s shoulder.

“What’s the problem?” Jeff asked him.

“Treecko never lets me recall him to his pokeball. I think he’s just being difficult for the sake of being difficult!” Professor Birch complained. He couldn’t be further from right. I saw Jeff grin and nod with apparent empathy.

“Hold still,” he whispered to Jeff. He shot the red beam from the center of the device. Jeff sidestepped so that the beam didn’t hit me. The laser instead shot into his eye, causing him to yelp and double over. In anger, I spat the twig from my mouth so that it hit Professor Birch in the face. He stumbled backwards and, with agility and speed, I hit the pokeball from his hand with my tail. I did a somersault and landed on a knee, managing to catch the twig back in my mouth before it hit the floor. I was extremely proud of myself and showed it through a smug grin.

“Why does this Treecko have it in for me so much?! Ever since day one!” he moaned. I simply shrugged and stood up.

He grinned and shook his head. “Just check if you accidentally captured my optic nerve.” I smirked and the professor chuckled.

“Wow, you’re really fast, Treecko,” Jeff complimented. I nodded in thanks. I also made it appear that I was agreeing with him simply for the fact that Jeff would probably want a pokemon with good self-confidence. I was confident in myself… but I still wasn’t good enough.

Professor Birch took out a piece of paper, took a pen, and began writing on it. He handed it to Jeff, who began to read it. I had a feeling I knew what it said; it disheartened me.

Pretty soon Jeff was going to start listening to Professor Birch’s advice. It depressed me to think about when that day, or even hour, would come.

“I guess there’s no stopping you then. I’m sure you two will do fine. I’m just worried for you safety,” he insisted, grinning.

“Well, thanks.”

“In case you get curious, Jeff… don’t try that. You probably WILL end up losing your eye. But, if you DO try, make sure you don’t have six pokemon on hand before the league because I don’t want it back here.”

“I never would have guessed,” Jeff sarcastically replied.

I gave the professor a grin, which clearly aggravated him.

“Please, Treecko. Just go into your pokeball…”

I sighed. I knew I couldn’t keep doing this… and if I wanted to travel with Jeff, I’d have to start getting use to the torturous sphere. An aura of defeated sadness surrounded me as I gave in. I hung my head and approached his feet. He pointed the thing at me and I tightly shut my eyes and felt a chill go up my spine; my past memories were haunting me. I awaited to be returned into the depths of the ball but was shocked when Jeff said, “Wait!”

“You want to say something to Treecko before I return him?” the Professor asked.

“Yes…I never actually planned to keep Treecko in his pokeball.” Jeff smiled, rubbing the back of his head.

Treecko and Professor Birch looked at him with a look of disbelief.

“Come again?” Professor Birch asked.

“I remember having a…” Jeff trailed off. “I just can’t do it again…”

“I’m sorry?” he asked Jeff, confused. There was something up with Jeff… I could sense that something haunted him much like something did me.

“Erm, I think I can read Treecko very well and I think he hates being stuck inside it. I feel that he has the same understandable fear as I; I can’t say I’m fond of being in that sort of dependent situation, either. Am I right, Treecko?”

I was surprised but I smiled and nodded, admitting to it. He was exactly right. He smiled in return.

“Therefore, I won’t force you to be confined to a pokeball,” he offered, extending a hand.

“<This is terrific! Things are actually going my way!>”

I took his offer and jumped onto his arm and climbed up to his shoulder. I smirked, internally enjoying the idea.

“You two really are…made for each other.” Professor Birch smiled. “Not one trainer, other than you, Jeff, would have been happy with that Treecko… no offense Treecko, but you know it’s true.”

I grinned and admittedly nodded.

“Also the way you two cared for each other back with Fearow…astounding, you two already have a great bond like a chain!”

We both mildly flushed and nodded. “Let’s just say we’re like old friends,” Jeff smiled at me. I smirked back at the inside joke.

“Thank you so much, Professor. I’ll keep in contact! Let’s go, Treecko,” he said excitedly.

“Treecko tree,” I agreed. “<This is too good to be true!>” I thought. “<I don’t think I could have asked for a better trainer and companion!>”

With me on his shoulder, we began to walk out of the lab.

“<Who knows? This may actually be… fun.>”

“I’ll call you as soon as I get to Oldale Town,” Jeff called back to him. “I have to stop by home first,” he explained.

And so we, the two old friends, walked out of the lab. The setting sun cast orange upon are still bloodied bodies.

“Damn it, Tyrogue,” Jeff grunted “That’s ridiculous, of course I wanted to be friends with you…I think Tyrogue just doesn’t like…” Jeff tried to think of a way to put it lightly, but couldn’t. “…you.”

The teen bit his lip, worried that his new pokemon might get offended from his blunt remark.

Treecko shrugged. “Cko tree, treecko treecko cko,” he grinned, trying to say, “<I get that a lot; I think many other pokemon are threatened by me.>”

Jeff halted in front of a medium-sized white house. He began to cut across the spacious green lawn towards his home a final time before heading off. While avoiding the jets of a sprinkler, he noticed two neighbors standing on the sidewalk behind him. Although they were talking quietly, Jeff heard them say something along the lines of “Did that kid really choose THAT Treecko? He must have a loose bolt to want to go training with it!”

Treecko grunted without care and Jeff now knew that he had also heard them. He swung around defensively to retort but found himself stopped short when he noticed that he was standing directly over the sprinkler.

The grass lizard took a glance around the suburban neighborhood, still waiting for his companion to trudge his way out of the sprinkler. Jeff, now soaking, walked up the white steps of the front house and onto the veranda, which had several deck chairs sitting on the wooden porch. He opened the white, windowed front door and entered a cramped vestibule littered with shoes and umbrellas. Ahead was the hallway which Treecko recognized as the place where Tyrogue encouraged him to leave.

“Hey mom, I’m back!” Jeff yelled into the house as he entered. “Treecko, this is my home...in the daytime,” Jeff told him, as Treecko jumped down and looked around curiously.

He looked to his left and noticed a spread out living room complimented with two opposite-facing leather couches. Behind the green leather couch was a fireplace, which homed a mantelpiece above it. Parallel to the front door was a hallway that led to the kitchen. To their right were stairs that led to the second floor.

“What took you so long?” his mom asked before turning into the hallway from the kitchen. She was a dyed blonde, brown haired woman walked entered and looked at them.

“My goodness! What happened to you two?!” she asked, frantically digging through a cabinet beside her looking for one of the many first aid kits in the house.

“It’s nothing; we were on the receiving end of a Fearow’s beak--y’know, kind of a male bonding thing,” Jeff replied, calmly.

Mrs. Growell inspected Jeff’s new pokemon and looked less than pleased. The master observer, Treecko, noticed this and clearly was expecting no more than disappointment.

“<So this is what someone’s mother looks like… same expression. Figures,>” thought Treecko.

“Mom, this is Treecko. I decided on traveling with him before I walked out the door today,” Jeff admitted as he introduced them.

“I thought you said that you were getting a Torchic!” Mrs. Growell said, disappointed.

“Mom…never did I ONCE say that I was getting a Torchic! I wanted a Treecko ever since I saw my brother’s, when I was nine,” Jeff replied, truthfully.

He looked at where Treecko was standing and imagined a Torchic standing in his place. Jeff envisioned the Torchic cutely running around in circles before crashing into a wall. He chuckled and didn’t mind the idea of having a Torchic, but for some reason, he still wanted Treecko instead. The grass type sweat dropped and gave him a look, noticing that Jeff was staring at him for the past minute.

“Not even a Mudkip?” she yearned. “Your brother chose a Mudkip!” This snapped Jeff out of his differential thoughts.

“No he didn’t! He chose Treecko…he caught a Mudkip somewhere after saving it… and that was nine years before this guy came along!” Jeff corrected, motioning to Treecko. “I’ve made my choice and I don’t doubt a single thought of it!” Jeff said in irritatation.

To this Treecko smiled smugly. The lizard mumbled to himself, “<Arceus, it sounds like being friends with one’s first pokemon is some sort of right of passage for these humans. And this guy’s mother forgets her own son’s one? I’m really NOT missing out on this whole parent’s thing. I’ll probably be forgotten much quicker than the other Treecko.>”

“Well, Treecko sure is… nice,” his mom lied as she looked at Treecko who lay on Jeff’s shoulder, leaning against his tail and Jeff’s cranium, with his arms behind his head.

Jeff began to get uncomfortable with the disdain towards his friend, so he quickly brought up a question that he was planning to ask anyways. “Is Dad still working at the hospital in Petalburg?” he asked his mom.

“Yes, he is on-call so he and Bayleef will be home later tonight,” his mom replied, walking into the kitchen.

Treecko tilted his head at Jeff upon hearing the odd pokemon’s name.

“You remember Chikorita? She’s now a Bayleef… a grass reptile pokemon, like you. She helps him out at the hospital, healing people’s ailments and wounds,” Jeff explained to Treecko.

Treecko listened, intrigued, and then went back to poking around the living room. Jeff ran up to his room, packed a few more items which he had forgotten earlier, and changed into a dry green t-shirt. He also threw two more shirts into his backpack.

“It never hurts to pack some clean, fresh shirts in case we run into Kristie again,” he thought eagerly.

Tyrogue entered the living room, from a door leading to the kitchen, with a huge scowl on his face. “<You again,>” Tyrogue growled, cracking his knuckles. “<I see you just couldn’t stay away from us.>”

“<That was a pretty low stunt that you pulled last time…>” Treecko began growling in return, maneuvering himself into a defiant stance.

He quickly recovered from the fall by using his tail’s momentum, and bounded back upwards. He rammed Tyrogue into the wall. Two hanging pictures dropped as a result from the impact. Treecko jumped at the pokemon who was getting up. With a quick exchange from the wood gecko’s tail, Tyrogue was thrown at the wall again. The fighting type slid to the floor, cringing, but managed to stand back up. He slid over the coffee table feet first, his strong legs hitting Treecko in the gut.

“What’s that sound?!” Jeff called down from upstairs.

Tyrogue grabbed the wincing Treecko by the throat and held him off the ground. The grass type was completely vulnerable while Tyrogue delivered solid punches to his face, like a hammer beating in a nail. He cringed in pain and anger, while the cuts on his face reopened and bled. Treecko held on to the scuffle pokemon’s wrist, trying to loosen his grip. Jeff ran back downstairs and saw the green lizard pinned against a doorframe by Tyrogue; Treecko was quickly losing oxygen.

“DAMN IT YOU TWO, BREAK IT UP, NOW!” Jeff yelled as he ran to them and forcefully pried them apart. Using his long arms, he pressed them both against opposite sides of a door frame, making sure they wouldn’t start fighting again.

“What the hell are you two doing? Now is not the time to settle whatever scores you have with each other. It’s a good thing that we’re leaving…Tyrogue, go back to weightlifting or whatever the hell you do. Treecko, let’s go.” Jeff commanded, releasing them to the hardwood floor.

“It’s a good thing he’s not coming with us…” Jeff thought to himself. He imagined if Tyrogue did come along and envisioned himself walking along side one of those cartoon fights with the arms and legs shooting out of a moving cloud of dust and dirt.

Tyrogue grumbled as he sulked upstairs and Treecko was on his knees rubbing his red throat, and panting from the lack of oxygen. After a moment of catching his breath, the wood gecko stood to his feet and charged after Tyrogue, enraged. He lunged up the stairs at the fighting pokemon, who was oblivious to the attack. Before he could hit the pink pokemon, he found himself stopped and now hanging in midair Jeff had grabbed one of his two tails. Treecko swung about helplessly, held up by the teen.

“Treecko…” Jeff glared at him disapprovingly. Treecko ignored him and swung about trying to free himself and attack the clueless Tyrogue.

“Damnit, Treecko, stop it! It’s over!” Jeff urged.

Treecko continued thrashing for thirty seconds, refusing to give in. Jeff stared at him, exasperated. Treecko then stopped reluctantly, giving in, and was limply hanging by his tail. He swung back and forth, looking upset.

“Look, Treecko…” Jeff attempted to comfort him, but the wood gecko folded his arms and looked away with contempt.

“I’m sorry, I know Tyrogue is an ass hole, but you don’t want to stoop to his level,” Jeff explained. Treecko silently stared at the wall, upside down.

“Look, I know that we are just getting to know each other, even though we’ve actually KNOWN each other for a year. But trust me; I just did you a big favor. Are we cool?” Jeff asked Treecko, who still looked angry. Treecko scowled but then nodded grudgingly, still trying to cool down. Jeff let go of his tail and placed him on the stairs; they continued back down to the hallway.

Jeff looked in the mirror in the main hallway at his battered and cut face. “I hope we don’t have too much more friction between us,” Jeff thought unsurely.

“I haven’t even left town yet and I already look like I was in a war… this is going to be a long trip,” Jeff thought out loud. “But, at least I have a cool scar and a cool pokemon!” Jeff turned to Treecko, smiling.

Treecko, who had finally began to cool off, forced a smile and motioned his head towards the door, obviously getting a little impatient.

Jeff nodded. “We should really be heading off before we start bleeding on the carpet,” Jeff told his mom. “I’m gonna go say goodbye to Tyrogue and then we’re off!”

Jeff walked back up the stairs and called out, “Hey Tyrogue…I’m sor…” Jeff stopped in the middle of his sentence as he reached the top of the stairs. He found himself looking at a large brown bodied pokemon with long, flexible, lighter brown, muscular legs. The pokemon’s brown eyes squinted at Jeff, proudly.

“Woah!” Jeff yelped, and hopped backwards onto the stairs in surprise at the new pokemon. Jeff missed a step and found himself slowly falling backwards down the stairs. The pokemon quickly outstretched its foot; it extended and caught him before he hit the stairs. Jeff pulled on the leg to stand himself up. He looked cautiously at the pokemon.

Treecko turned a head towards the stairs and called up with some concern. “Cko treecko?”

Jeff frantically covered for himself, “I’m fine, Treecko…go see if you can find my…shoe!”

Jeff didn’t want Treecko to feel ashamed and weak compared to the newly evolved pokemon, who the wood gecko wasn’t even fond of. He could imagine the poor guy sulking off, feeling inadequate to the new fighting pokemon. Jeff was worried he may have even started a fight with him to prove himself and Jeff knew that Hitmonlee would be eager to test out his new form. He shuddered at the chaos that would have ensued.

“Congratulations, Tyrogue, but I have to go now. For my sakes, don’t come downstairs until we leave, okay? No offense, but I don’t want you stealing our thunder,” Jeff quietly told him. He wasn’t concerned about himself but Treecko, who had been through a lot that day. This was the last thing that he needed.

Hitmonlee nodded and walked back into the upstairs hallway. Jeff jogged down the stairs to Treecko, who waited eagerly in the vestibule.

“Hey mom, I’ll call you and Dad in the pokemon center in the next town…and something happened to Tyrogue!” Jeff called to her as she entered the hallway.

His mom, although she was no stranger to having sons leave for pokemon training, was still quite upset.

“Are you sure you’ll be all right?! Will you call as soon as you can? Will that Treecko be strong enough to protect you from wild ones?” she asked anxiously.

To that question, Treecko growled. Jeff kneeled down and put a hand on his shoulder.

“We’ll be fine, Mom. I’ll be more than okay with Treecko to fight with me. Really.”

She sighed, almost tearfully. “Okay. I’ll miss you. Be careful and have that Treecko take good care of you! Are you sure you have everything you need to survive out there?!”

“I’ll miss you too, and I can take care of myself…just because I can’t make an omelet…” Jeff called out to his mom, and cut himself off as he closed the front door.

“Is she serious? Us…be careful?” Jeff muttered to Treecko, who was on his shoulder as the teen walked down the porch stairs.

The duo were shocked to find a small crowd waiting for them at the front of their house. Treecko was confused at the gathering of humans, but Jeff was only surprised. He had seen the townspeople do a similar thing for Alan yesterday night, but he had thought that was purely Alan-exclusive. He was happy that they were doing this but also quite embarrassed.

“Congratulations or your first pokemon!” they told Jeff, enthusiastically.

“Treecko, huh? Never thought I’d see the day when a trainer from home would choose Treecko over Torchic or Mudkip!” one man in his thirties stated.

“Be safe and put Littleroot on the map!” another woman encouraged.

Jeff and Treecko blushed; Treecko was especially uncomfortable and unfamiliar with the sudden amount of attention that they were receiving. He was always the odd one out. Treecko and Jeff, filled with shock and embarrassment, had trouble speaking when trying to thank the small crowd. Jeff walked to his father, who had black hair and was still in hospital scrubs.

“What are you doing out of work?” Jeff asked him.

“I couldn’t miss my son starting on his own journey…did you pack the medical kits that I took from the hospital?"

Jeff nodded.

Mr. Growell looked at Treecko. “That’s a really cool pokemon you have there!”

Treecko nervously chuckled and rubbed the back of his head, but smiled with pride.

Behind Jeff's father stood a large, light green dinosaur pokemon. It was Bayleef. It was much larger than it was when it was a Chikorita. It now had a much longer head leaf and a necklace of green flower buds. Bayleef walked up to Treecko and handed him a flower with one of her vine whips.

“Treecko, tree.” Treecko nodded, in thanks, although he was quite confused as to why she was giving him a flower. Bayleef blushed a little bit and then backed up behind Jeff’s dad’s legs.

“Th-thank you, all…f-for this great sendoff party…thing. I will do a great job with Treecko by my side!” Jeff announced to them, trying not to stammer from modesty.

The crowd applauded and the two blushed as they moved past the crowd and up the north road.

Jeff and Treecko, feeling homesick already, set off into the forest, leaving their respective homes behind.

------

The duo, walking side by side, left the gates of Littleroot Town.
They walked up to a sign on the left side of the road by the forest. The sign was illuminated dimly by the setting sun, casting and orange glow on it.

“Route 101—Oldale Town,” Jeff stated as he read the sign aloud.

“Well…” Jeff looked to Treecko. “We’ve got to start somewhere.” Treecko nodded and they continued on down the rugged dirt path.

Jeff walked, swatting flies away, who were buzzing around him like it was their last supper. “It’s a good thing that this route is pretty short, these bugs are annoying the hell out of me.” Treecko chuckled at Jeff’s annoyance.

Jeff looked at his first pokemon and had an idealistic feeling by looking at him that they’ll have an unbreakable bond. He watched Treecko look at the flower given to him by Bayleef.

“I wonder if he knows Bay has a crush on him,” the teen thought to himself. Jeff watched Treecko carelessly flick the flower into the forest before yawning, much to his embarrassment. “I guess not,” he pondered with a chuckle.

The wood gecko pokemon blushed, aware that Jeff noticed him yawn.

“If you’re tired you can ride on my shoulder if you want, Treecko,” Jeff suggested.

Treecko gave an adamant denial, wiping away all signs that he was exhausted.

Jeff grinned and the two continued walking along the forest path. The sun set behind the horizon to their left, causing the sky to grow dark. An eerie dark blue cast itself on the trees and the ground.

Treecko ran ahead and leapt on top of a boulder, looking ahead. Jeff caught up with the lizard and stood beside the boulder.

“What’s up, buddy? Do you see something ahead?” Jeff asked with curiousity as well as some unease.

“Treecko!” he agreed.

“A pokemon?” the teen asked his companion with a nervous pitch to his voice. Jeff was clearly worried that it might be a Scyther. Without really knowing it, Jeff began scrolling his fingers along the large scar on his left arm.

Treecko seemed to sense his unease, but didn’t bother to comfort him. He merely shook his head.

“Then what?” Jeff questioned again. “Do you think the town is that way?”

The wood gecko nodded and leapt forward off the boulder.

“Hold up,” the human urged. Treecko looked back with a mild hint of irritation. The night wind rustled the leaves of the forest as the two stared onwards.

“…I’m pretty sure we have to go right!” Jeff looked in the direction in which he was pointing. Treecko shook his head and insisted that it was north.

“I’m telling you it is right,” Jeff claimed, becoming hardheaded and disagreeable.

“Cko,” Treecko insisted.

“Right,” countered the teen.

Becoming more agitated with his human, Treecko growled, “Cko!”

“Right!”

“CKO!”

“RIGHT!”

“CKO!!!”

The two argued, getting a little closer and more hostile each time they spoke. They were practically spitting in each other’s faces by the time Jeff stopped it.

Treecko threw down his tail onto Jeff’s hand, slamming it into the dirt.

Jeff fell to the ground with the unexpected action, cringing and letting out a sharp exhale. He withdrew is dirt covered, aching hand from the ground. “Ok…we’ll go your way!” Jeff angrily told him through his gritting teeth. “I guess rock beats paper, too,” Jeff mumbled as they began walking.

“And for future reference, ‘Rock paper scissors’ is NOT ‘knucklebones’!” Jeff stated, still sore about losing.

Treecko looked back, grinned, and stuck out his tongue in a mocking fashion.

The two sprinted with everything they had along the dirt path. Treecko ran on all fours, which admittedly surprised Jeff as he had only seen him walk on his hind legs. Jeff was forced to jump over fallen branches and logs to avoid tripping. His little green friend was in the lead but he managed to catch up with him. Treecko noticed and bolted onward.

The two noticed that the path began to lead to a small town of about ten buildings.

“I guess I owe a certain reptile an apology,” the teen thought to himself, grinning as he sprinted towards the center. Jeff noticed a few people staring at the odd sight, but he shrugged it off. The dirt path became cleaner as they entered Oldale Town. He was just behind Treecko, who dashed for the door.

The automatic doors the center opened and he noticed Treecko leap over something for apparently no reason. Then Jeff heard memorable, disconcerting words.

“Oh crap! I can’t stop with this much speed,” Jeff thought to himself as he noticed the Torchic walk obliviously towards him. He tried to slow down but it was hopeless. The fire-type starter caused Jeff to go flying inside the center. He crashed into a girl, causing her to fall beside him.

Unbeknownst to Jeff, he nearly caused a purple rodent known as Rattata to faint, having missed crushing it by mere inches. The Torchic started chirping furiously at Jeff once again. A few people couldn’t help but laugh at the chaos while a few others merely ignored it. Treecko had a small grin on his face as he approached the groaning teen.

Jeff got to a knee and surveyed the damage. He noticed that the girl he knocked down was none other than Kristie.

A knot tied in his stomach as he helped her up frantically. “Sorry! Crap! Are you okay?” he asked, clumsily.

“Yeah, I’m ok,” Kristie replied with a faint giggle.

“You sure?” Jeff again asked, placing the twig in his mouth after losing it in the fall.

Kristie chuckled politely as she got up. Jeff blushed and mentally beat himself up, which created a self-loathing face. He turned his head away to Treecko, who folded his arms and shifted his own twig in his mouth, smugly.
As he turned away he slapped his hand to his head and started muttering to himself, “Real freaking smooth, Jeff.” He placed his head against the metal doorframe of the pokemon center in frustration with himself, waiting for the blush to die down.

Treecko walked up to Jeff, followed by a still angry Torchic. Treecko was confused by his friend’s odd, new behavior around this girl, but then he shrugged it off and jumped up onto Jeff’s shoulder.

“<Whatever you say, best buddy,>” responded the Torchic known as Ares, sarcastically. “<Do you know any moves besides that pathetic pound attack yet?>”

Treecko put his hands behind his head dismissively. “<If my attack is so weak then what does that say about you when I beat you senseless with it back in the lab?>”

The Torchic growled. “<If you’re so much better than me, then why do I know a new attack and you don’t?!>” Ares chirped in anger,

“<I’m better than you because I have arms,>” the grass type said with a collected sense of confidence which immediately struck a nerve with the Torchic.

“<You won’t for long!!>” Ares trilled, running a Treecko.

“Torch!” Kristie stated, picking up Ares. “What’s gotten into you?”

“Torch?” both Treecko and Jeff muttered, slightly amused by the lack of creativity. The only difference was that Jeff added, “I like it!”

Treecko sighed and crawled onto the male human’s shoulder. Jeff patted the grass starter’s back as he stood to look at Kristie.

“Hey, Jeff, how about a pokemon battle so we can show off our pokemon to each other!” Kristie abruptly said.

Jeff paused for a second and then said, “Yeah, sure. Are you up for a battle, Treecko?”

Treecko nodded confidently and exasperatedly said, “Treecko tree cko cko tree!” as if saying, “<You should know by now you don’t have to ask me if I want to battle. I live for battles!>”

“Ok, let’s battle over to the left of the pokemon center,” Kristie instructed, walking out of the building.

“Got it,” he replied, walking over and placing his backpack by a tree in the said location.

The trainers and pokemon went to their respective sides. Jeff scanned Torchic with his pokedex. The dex proclaimed in a robotic voice, “Torchic, the Chick pokemon. If attacked, it strikes back by spitting balls of fire it forms in its stomach. A Torchic dislikes darkness because it can't see its surroundings.”

“It may have the type advantage, but we can beat it, no problem,” Jeff said, reassuring Treecko.

“Let’s get this started!” Kristie called out. “Torch! Charge him!”

“Toooooor” he said, his voice getting shriller as the chick rushed towards Treecko in a rage.

“Treecko, use Leer!” Treecko dug his feet into the earth and stared menacingly at the oncoming pokemon. As the Torchic came closer he made eye contact with the lizard and he couldn’t take his eyes off of Treecko’s. Ares, distracted from his running by the gaze of Treecko, tripped over itself, and fell face first into the dirt.

“Tor!” said Ares in shock as he drew his beak out of the mud.

“Torch, quickly, get up!” Kristie called out to Ares.

“Treecko, jump up over that Torchic and use pound!” Jeff commanded.

Treecko began to run towards Ares and then he leaped into the air.
When Ares looked up he could see Treecko’s silhouette jumping in the bright moonlight.

“TOR!” the Torchic moaned as the large, muscular tail of Treecko slammed it further into the mud.

“<Direct Hit,>” Treecko called to Jeff, smugly, raising one fist up in a victory pose while using the other to place his tree twig in his mouth, before folding his arms.

Jeff stood, dumbfounded. “Did I just understand what I think I understood?” he asked himself, dazedly.

Treecko looked at Jeff for direction, “<Jeff, the battle’s not over yet! Come on! What’s our next move?!>” Treecko shouted from what should have been “Cko tree treecko, tree! Treecko! Cko cko?!”

While Jeff stared in amazement at Treecko, Ares rose behind the idle gecko.

“Torch, use scratch!” commanded Kristie.

Jeff snapped out of it, while Ares began to raise his talons. “Treecko, heads up! Dodge, right!” Jeff heeded.

It was too little too late; when Treecko jumped, Ares’s claws slashed into his right arm, leaving three bloody claw marks.

“Trrrrr,” Treecko grunted, clutching his searing cuts while landing on one knee.

“Hang in there, pal,” Jeff yelled. “Treecko, run up that tree to your left!”

Treecko jutted his head to his left, looking it up and down. He nodded and jumped onto the trunk. His hand’s adept grip allowed him to scale the tree like an Aipom. Treecko climbed and disappeared into the darkness of the canopy.

The Torchic quickly looked up, turning his head every which way, frantically. Ares, having very poor night vision, and Treecko, having excellent hiding skills, made it so that Ares could not spot the well camouflaged Treecko in the dark night.

“Torch, use ember upwards like a flare!” said Kristie to her daunted pokemon.

“Chic, chic, chic, chic, chic!” The Torchic spat many balls of fire from his mouth upwards, illuminating the tree branches in a blinding orange light.

“Ok, Treecko…NOW!” The small, hidden figure jumped down from atop an orange-lit branch and landed behind Ares, who still spat flames. Treecko maneuvered his body towards the right, powering up his tail before he swung it with a massive force. The muscular tail hit Ares smack across the face.

“TORR,” Ares screamed as he went flying a few meters off to the left, still spitting ember fireballs as it landed. Ares groaned, a gentle flame still burning inside his mouth.

“Torch! Are you alright?!” Kristie yelled, concerned. She ran over to her exhausted pokemon and cradled it in her arms.

“Torrrr,” he said weakly.

“Wow, that was a great battle, Jeff,” Kristie smiled, standing up with Ares in her arms.

“You handled yourself much better than I did out there. I was just lucky,” Jeff reassured her, modestly. Treecko strutted triumphantly over to Jeff, with a proud grin plastered on his face.

“<Are you kidding? We wiped the floor with them.>” Treecko grunted, proudly crossing his arms.

Jeff shot a glare at Treecko, pretending not to hear that. “Ok, let’s go back to the pokemon center and get our pokemon healed up, then we should call it a night and rest at the center until sunrise.”

“Sounds good,” Kristie agreed.

The four entered walked by the white exterior of the red-roofed pokemon center. They went through the automatic doors and stepped onto the unnaturally clean, white tiled center. They walked to the counter ahead of them.

A cheerful looking women with pink hair appeared behind it. “How may I help you today?” she asked with cheer.

“Can you heal my Treecko, please?”

“But of course! We’ll take your Treecko and he should be fine in no time! I’m Nurse Joy by the way!” She said happily.

Treecko shook his head in disagreement saying, “<It’s just a flesh wound.>” Nurse Joy ignored him and picked up Treecko, who sighed as he was taken to the backroom.

“Thank you, and nice to meet you, I’m Jeff,” Jeff said, before walking over to the video phone in the corner of the Pokemon center. He lightly pressed the numbers on the machine shaped like a TV and called up Professor Birch.

“Hello?” The professor asked with yawn. Jeff saw the brown haired professor stretching as he appeared to be waking up from a sleep.

“Sorry for waking you, Professor. I assumed that you would be uplate examining some nocturnal species of pokemon again,” Jeff greeted him with awkwardness.

“Actually I was,” he explained. Just then, a brown, owl-like pokemon hopped on one leg onto Professor Birch’s shoulder. Its menacingly red eyes stared at Jeff. “Hoothoot here used its hypnosis on me as part of an analysis.”

The brown bird remained staring at Jeff, who was more than a little creeped out by the way it looked at him.

“That’s great to hear. If you hurry, you may catch up with Kristie,” Birch advised him.

“Actually she’s here with me right now,” Jeff said happily. “We just battled and I came out the winner.”

“Good work, Jeff. I knew from the start you and Treecko would make a great team.” Birch smiled as the Hoothoot jumped from his shoulder.

“If you say so, Professor,” Jeff teased. “I have to go now, I’ll talk to you once I catch my next pokemon,” Jeff said before turning off the phone.

Jeff turned away from the blank screen and walked over the white tiled floor to Nurse Joy. Beside her stood Kristie, who held Torchic. Treecko walked over the floor and crawled up and onto Jeff’s shoulder. Both pokemon were looking as good as before the battle.

“Thank you,” Jeff and Kristie replied.

Jeff turned to Kristie, summing up his courage, and stammered, “Hey…how would you like to travel together at least until the next city?”

“Petalburg?” Kristie asked as she held Torchic, “Sure, why not!”

A wave of relief swept over him. “Great, let’s head out now, then!” Jeff said enthusiastically.

“<Great, now I have to be with Ares again. I was happy when I was rid of him forever. At least that damn Mudkip isn’t here too,>” thought the grass type to himself. He looked over to Ares only to get a menacing gaze from the fire type.

“Let’s go,” Jeff said to Treecko who was relaxing on his shoulder.
----

Jeff, Kristie, Treecko, and Torchic walked through the glass automatic doors and turned west. They carefully treaded over the field, which still housed burning blades of grass from the battle. Jeff stomped out a light flame which doubled as a small lamp. The group walked into an open field, heading westward towards Petalburg City.

“So Jeff, I see you didn’t decide to keep your Treecko inside a pokeball, either,” Kristie exclaimed, practically skipping through the dark field.

“Yeah, we decided that it would be better if Treecko stayed out of a pokeball,” Jeff responded.

“I did the same thing with Torchic; I couldn’t bare the thought of not having him with me at all times. He’s so warm and cuddly,” Kristie smiled, cuddling Torchic lightly. She started to go on a rant about how great her Torchic was. Treecko rolled his eyes and Jeff feigned interest.

Jeff let out an informed grunt, remembering back to when he was running to Professor Birch’s lab. He remembered seeing a blue, Torchic-like pokemon riding with the man who he was racing. “So THAT was a Piplup?” Jeff mumbled to himself; Kristie’s harangue was now white noise to him.

“Torchic is also really sweet and fun to hold. More over, Torch has really ticklish spot behind his ears and…” Kristie rambled, being sucked into her own little Torchic-filled world.

“<Wake me when it’s over,>” Treecko said, closing his eyes.

“You got it, Gex,” Jeff muttered to him, teasingly.

Treecko opened one eye, bothered by the poor nickname. “<Treecko’s fine, thanks.>” Then he closed it again.

After a few minutes of walking, Kristie finally finished with, “And that’s why my Torchic is great.” By then they were half way to Petalburg.

“Wow,” Jeff remarked. “That’s a lot of great things about Torchics,” he pointed out with unnoticeable sarcasm.

“<And don’t you forget it, bub,>” murmured Ares, sassily.

Jeff started to have a stare down with Ares. The Torchic turned its head, noticing something.

“What, Torch, do you see something?” Kristie asked, alerted to her pokemon struggling in her arms.

“<A Marill,>” he chirped while it hopped to the ground. The gang looked over at a small, somewhat foggy pond. Ripples emerged towards the edge of the pond. From the center of the ripples emerged two large blue ears with red encasing the insides. The ears twitched as the rest of the body ascended from the water. The Marill’s body was like a blue beach ball with a white stomach. Marill had endearing eyes and a cute smile. It had a very peculiar tail; the tail was crooked in places and at the very end was a large blue ball.

“OH, I want it!” Kristie squealed, yearningly.

“Hey Treecko, you won’t want to miss this battle.” Jeff nudged him with his shoulder.

Treecko awoke from sleep and yawned. “<I might if I can have a few more minutes of rest…>” he replied, irritated from the awakening.

Treecko and Jeff took a seat on the dirt path, watching the battle taking place near the pond to the right of the road. Jeff scanned the Marill with his pokedex.

The Marill rolled backwards from the scratch and landed upright. It retaliated with a powerful blast of water emitted from the Marill’s mouth. The jet hit Ares dead center, sending him flying backwards into the dirt, turning to mud while he slid over it. Ares groaned while getting up, drenched and muddy.

“<I HATE water,>” growled Ares, angrily shaking off the water.

“Torch, Ember,” Kristie commanded.

“Tor, tor, tor, tor, tor.” Ares shot small pellets of orange flame from its mouth. The Marill dodged the attack and the ember hit an unsuspecting pokemon, who was just emerging from the pond. The orange pokemon stumbled backwards. The hit pokemon rolled forwards on his hard, orange shell. Above the pokemon’s angered eyes were three sharp, orange horns. Using his six small legs and his two large, orange and beige pincers, he got back onto his feet. The pokemon slapped its fish like tail in the ground, while the blue moonlight reflected off of his wet orange exoskeleton.

Jeff scanned the pokemon with his pokedex. “Corphish, the Ruffian Pokemon: Once it grips prey with its large pincers, it will never let go, no matter what. It is a hardy Pokémon that can thrive in any environment,” finished the monotonous robotic gadget.

Ares responded with a comment that undoubtedly struck a nerve with the Corphish. He was about to hit Torchic with a crabhammer attack, when Treecko caught his pincer with his hand.

“<One battle at a time,>” Treecko advised it, preparing to fight.

“<Stay out of this, Twig boy,>” the Corphish growled, quickly retracting his claw from Treecko’s hands.

Treecko let out a huff and dug his feet into the mud while the Corphish assumed a fighting stance.

“Ok, Treecko! Use your p-” Jeff called, but was cut off when Treecko attacked without him.

The large tail of Treecko caught the Corphish off guard, causing the hit to send it sprawling.

Nearby, Ares dodged Marill’s water gun attacks and hit it with a tackle. Marill hit the ground hard and tried to use its tail to get itself up, but collapsed. Kristie threw a pokeball and a red beam engulfed the Marill. The pokeball containing Marill rumbled once, and then blipped, indicating that Marill had been caught.

“Yes!” shouted Kristie.

“<Too easy!>” boasted her Torchic.

Meanwhile, Treecko used pound after pound on Corphish’s tough shell. The attacks were not doing much damage against its thick shell. Corphish used a bubblebeam, shooting many translucent bubbles out of its pincer, which exploded on contact with Treecko.

“<Errrgh,>” Treecko grunted, holding his bruising chest.

Corphish came in with a crabhammer. Treecko jumped up and Corphish missed him and drove his claw into the ground. The impact caused an eruption of soil to fire upwards. Treecko used this to his advantage. He came bursting through the wall of airborne dirt and back flipped, using pound in an uppercut like motion. Corphish was knocked onto his back.

Jeff took the pokeball from his pocket and pressed the middle button, making it bigger. Jeff threw the pokeball with might and precision. The Corphish got itself upright, but the pokeball hit it square in the forehead. Corphish was sucked into the pokeball. The pokeball wiggled three…four…five…six times, before the button finally flashed a red color and stopped moving.

“All right! A Corphish! Nice fighting, Treecko,” Jeff remarked.

Treecko nodded. Kristie and Jeff approached each other and congratulated one another on their catches.

“<Nice to meet you,>” replied Corphish, shaking Jeff’s hand with his claw. “<My hobbies include being rejected by females, being alone on Saturday nights, and, like now, making jokes when I’m insecure,>” Corphish grinned, trying to lighten the mood.

“<I can work perfectly fine on my own without help of a teammate. I work better solo and unhindered by others.>”

“Tell that to yourself when you’re surrounded by a group of fire type pokemon,” Jeff retorted, sticking up for Corphish.

Treecko crossed his arms and his face turned to an apathetic look but Jeff could tell by his eyes that he was still bothered.

Kristie decided to wait until they reached the Petalburg pokemon centre to bring out Marill, due to its wounds. The two trainers wandered along the dirt path. Corphish walked up by Jeff while Treecko was walking far up, alone.

“<Oh…>” Corphish said, giving a stare at Treecko. “<Why aren’t I in my pokeball?>” he asked his new acquaintance.

“I dunno.” Jeff shrugged. “Treecko said he didn’t like being in pokeballs so I let him out with me. I wasn’t sure if you were like that too.”

“<I don’t see what he thinks is so bad about it. It’s just kinda like sleeping,>” exclaimed the water type.

“Why? Do you want to be in your pokeball?” the teen asked.

“<Nah. Not right now, at least. I’d rather stay out here and talk.>”

The human nodded and looked over at Kristie with a smile.

Corphish noticed his face and smirked, merrily.

“Hey, I think we’re almost there,” Jeff stated, as he could see the tips of the buildings over the tree line.

Jeff decided to catch up with Treecko and maybe talk to him about whether he was alright with Corphish. In the process, however, he accidentally stepped on Treecko’s tail. The wood gecko emitted a yelp of pain, before quickly swinging around and taking out Jeff’s legs with his tail. The human fell with a thud as Kristie and Ares watched on in confusion.

“Uh… what are you doing with that?” Jeff questioned warily, still on the ground.

The wood gecko simply approached the human’s head and threw the glob of mud precisely at Jeff’s face.

The teen brought his hands to his face and wiped the mud from his face “Okay, you asked for it!” Jeff grinned. He tackled Treecko and the two began to playfully fight each other on the ground.

“I hope you’re prepared for the dreaded ‘Tickle attack’!” Jeff laughed, pinning Treecko in the mud. Treecko actually laughed, landing a hit on Jeff’s face, knocking him off of him. Corphish decided to take part in the merriment and tackled Jeff, knocking them farther in the mud. The three rolled over laughing, as they wrestled.

Two young boys approached Jeff and Kristie. One had a yellow baseball cap and had brown hair. The other boy looked younger and wore an orange t-shirt and blue shorts.

“Do you two want to battle in a double battle?” the one with the cap asked. Jeff stopped wrestling and stood up, brushing himself off. Kristie looked at her Marill’s pokeball and then her Torchic, who took quite a beating in the earlier battle, with worry.

Jeff noticed this and stepped up. “I’ll take both of you two on,” said Jeff with confidence.

“Ok, but don’t get mad when you lose,” said the other boy.

“That shouldn’t be a problem. Go Treecko and Corphish,” Jeff ordered.

Treecko glared at Jeff, taken aback that Jeff thought he needed Corphish’s help to beat two little kids.

“<Let’s give’em hell,>” Corphish battle cried to Treecko, who ignored him in displeasure.

“Go Lotad!” said the boy with the cap.

“Go Taillow!” said the younger trainer.

A blue bodied pokemon, who had a green, dish-like lily pad on its head appeared next to a dark blue feathered bird. The bird also had a red and white pattern on its chest and neck.

“Taillow, use a quick attack on Corphish!” the boy with the cap commanded.

“Lotad, use astonish on Treecko,” the younger kid told his pokemon.

Taillow took to the air and came zooming towards Corphish, who clicked his pincers eagerly. Lotad jumped right in front of Treecko, attempting to surprise him. Treecko didn’t give an inch of ground; he didn’t even blink.

“<That was pretty pathetic,>” muttered Treecko.

Jeff yelled, “Corphish, on my signal, harden. And Treecko use Leer and then pound on Lotad!”

Treecko stared down the small pokemon, causing it to back off, frightened. He then jumped upwards and slammed his tail down onto the Lotad’s rain dish. This caused a rough head injury, knocking it out.

“<That was too easy,>” Treecko thought, as the boy called back his Lotad.

Taillow came closer and closer to Corphish. As soon as the bird was a foot away from Corphish, Jeff yelled out, “NOW.” Corphish hardened his shell causing severe recoil damage on Taillow when it hit Corphish.

“Taillow, you ok? Use Peck!” yelled the boy as Taillow got up, shaking its head.

“Corphish, Crabhammer from the side!” Corphish swung his huge pincer, hitting the bird far into the forest.

“Taillow!” yelled the boy, running after his fallen pokemon.

“<This battle couldn’t be more won,>” exclaimed Corphish happily.

“Great job, Jeff,” congratulated Kristie. “That was great!”

Jeff blushed at her compliment. Corphish looked at him and grinned, seeing sparks fly between the two new trainers. Treecko still didn’t see what Corphish could see.

“<No need to be modest, Jeff, we did great!>” Treecko smirked. That was Treecko’s way of comprehending Jeff’s behavior, which caused the teen to blush further.

Corphish smiled at Treecko’s naivety and tried to pull his leg. “<Hey pal, did you hear the story of that Cyndaquil named ‘Nye’ and his girlfriend, a Flareon named ‘Eve’?>”

Treecko looked at Corphish with an unamused stare. “<Yeah, I also heard that Torchic just wrote ‘gullible’ on the back of your shell…I was in a clan, you know, I’ve seen all the pranks and dumb jokes.>”

“<Can’t blame a ‘phish for trying, can ya?>” Corphish grinned. When Treecko turned his head, Corphish quickly tried to check the back of his shell to see if anything was written on it. To his relief, there wasn’t.

“<So if you were in a clan how’d you end up here?>” asked Corphish, curiously.

He wanted to say, “<None of your business, you annoying lump of Gyarados food.>” but Treecko restrained himself, knowing it would be an Ares-like thing to say. Instead, Treecko dozed off for a moment and then replied insincerely, “<I’ll talk to you some other time…>”

“<Wow, you’ve managed to guess the last lines said by a girl Corphish on every single one of my dates!>” Corphish half joked, straying away from an awkward silence.

They both forced grins and walked to Jeff’s side.

“Shall we go into Petalburg City now?” asked Jeff, staring at the tall, flashy, unwelcoming city.

The group nodded and walked into the streets of neon signs and office buildings.

Plot: Not much to say in this area, as you seem to be following the same plot as the R/S/E games. That's okay, though, since Jeff's still at the beginning of his journey. Guess I gotta wait 'til later for the real plot twist.

Description: I wasn't really "wowed" in this area. I have absolutely no idea what Kristie looks like (unless you described her in a previous chapter O.o). Also, you failed to tell use how Oldale Town looks. I haven't played any GBA Pokemon game in years and I really have no idea on how any of those towns look. This however, only goes for the surroundings. When it comes to describing battles, you get an A.

Charatcers: This is where you excel. You create personalities for characters in a way that I don't even have to read "Insert Text" yelled (insert name) to know who's talking. And I must say, I love that Corphish XD

Other: Although I believed it was mentioned at SPPF, when stating nubers below 100, they should be spelled out. Also, although it may only pertain to me, "Ok" should be spelled "Okay".

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